"Ned will do the heavy lifting, that is what he is best at. Just don't tell him, it goes straight to his head."
Stam winks at the group of people gathered.
There was that note about the whispering way as well I believe. We should at least deliver these books as asked, the libraries of a larger university could help us understand the runes better.
"Wait a moment. I guess you mean the entries in his journal." Kendra suggests and fetches the book.
The Whispering Way is more than just a cabal of necromancers. I see that now. Undeath is their
fountain of youth. Uncovering their motivation does not place me at ease as I thought it might.
Their desire to be eternal simply makes them more dangerous.
Two Months Ago:
It is as I had feared. The Way is interested in something here in Ravengro. But what could it be?
One Month Ago:
Whatever the Way seeks, I am now convinced their goal is connected to Harrowstone. In retrospect,
I suppose it all makes sense—the stories they tell about the ruins in town are certainly chilling
enough. It may be time to investigate the ruins, but with everyone in town already being so worked
up about them, I’d rather not let the others know about my curiosity—there’s plenty of folks
hereabouts who already think I’m a demonologist or a witch or something. Ignorant fools.
Twenty Days Ago:
It is confirmed. The Way seems quite interested in something—no, strike that—someone who was
held in Harrowstone. But who, specifically, is the Way after? I need a list of everyone who died
the night of the fire. Everyone. The Temple of Pharasma must have such a list.
Eighteen Days Ago:
I see now just how ill prepared I was when I last set out for the Harrowstone. I am lucky
to have returned at all. The ghosts, if indeed they were ghosts (for I did not find it prudent to
investigate further) prevented me from transcribing the strange symbols I found etched along the
foundation—hopefully on my next visit I will be more prepared. Thankfully, the necessary tools to
defend against spirits are already here in Ravengro. I know that the church of Pharasma used to
store them in a false crypt in the Restlands at the intersection between Eversleep and the Black
Path. I am not certain if the current clergy even know of what their predecessors have hidden down
below. If my luck holds, I should be able to slip in and out with a few borrowed items.
Seventeen Days Ago:
Tomorrow evening I return to the prison. It is imperative the Way does not finish. My caution
has already cost me too much time. I am not sure what will happen if I am too late, but if my
theory is right, the entire town could be at risk. I don’t have time to update my will, so I’ll
leave this in the chest where it’ll be sure to be found, should the worst come to pass.
Stam will look over the journal a few times, "The Splatterman was a mage of some sort, we have his book to prove it. Not much in the book to link him to necromancy, the other ghosts you destroyed, were they all mages? Maybe the Whispering Way wanted knowledge that a ghost had?"
Stam then turns to the Father, "Is there a list of the prisoners some where? Their crimes? Who they were before being imprisoned?"
Grimsburrow should have it. As for the others, I believe one was a priest or was posing as a priest and the others were brutal thugs.
"I already told you what I know or could find in our records at the temple." Father Grimburrow tells.
Indeed, my error. We did get the records from the prison I believe.
"I am sorry Father, I wasn't part of the initial question period that was asked. I will accompany you to the temple when you leave to consult it myself to prevent you from wasting your time."
"Of course, you're welcome. My acolytes will help you find what you search for." Father Grimburrow replies.
As I said earlier. The Warden's wife told us that the ritual conducted by the man in bone armor only took the warden's spirit away. So I have the prisoner lists here...
He pulls out the papers: from his backpack and continues but I honestly don't know what good they will do. All the other five major prisoners spirits were still in the prision when we checked.
"Was there something special about the Warden? What did his wives ghost have to say about him?"
Only that he is what was keeping the spirits in the prison. He was Tortured and killed in the basement by the released prisoners, and this was shoved in his mouth.
Grergof pulls out the badge.
This was also what Mrs. Hawkran used to put the spirits to rest. So maybe it has some sort of magical properties, but I can not imagine this is what the bone armored man was after given that they left it in the prison.
Stams eyes will flash blue, he will concentrate hard on the badge in Grergof's hand.
As Kendra sees Stam frown she offers "I can try to identify it."
She get's up and fetches a wineglass from the cupboard and an open bottle of white wine. She pours a bit of the wine in the glass. Then she takes a owl's feather out of a pocket in her dress and stirrs the wine with it speaking some unintelligible words. The wine disappears as if it would evaporate at a tremendous rate while the glass shimmers lightly.
Watching the aura of the warden's badge for a while Kendra explains "This is a powerful item. It is a lesser metamagic rod able to extend the duration of the spell cast through it. That's fascinating."
Very useful for a spellcaster. Alas, I focus magic through potions and extracts.
A fine gift indeed to be left behind, but it still tells us nothing about why they wanted the warden's spirit.
"Maybe he was special, or he had knowledge about a prisoner that was at the Harrow Stone that no one else has?"
Stam will stand up and walk around the room a bit, thinking about the reason for abducting a ghost.
"You said that the warden even in death was preventing the spirits from leaving? Maybe it is as simple as they wanted those spirits released and they removed the plug? Never the less we have a month to deliberate this."
Spugnoir sips his martini and pets his cat. Wasn't it the warden's wife?
"But he was doing it prior?"
Stam will stop, grabbing another drink he will exit the back door and go feed Ned. Once that is complete he will come back in, still looking deep in thought.
"Who was all cursed in this town when the spirits took over? Is anyone still alive?"
"You're driving me crazy!" Jominda states. "I thought you knew what you were doing!" Looking around she asks Kendra "Do you have some paper?"
"Sure, just a moment." Kendra replies and fetches paper and a pencil from the next room. "Here you are."
"Thank you. Now at the Harrowstone you had the ghost of Warden Hawkran and the ghost of his wife which is Vesorianna Hawkran." She writes the names on one side of the paper. "Then you had these prisoner ghosts with these items. What were their names?"
"These were the Mosswater Marauder with a hammer, The Piper of Illmarsh with a flute, Father Charlatan with a bunch of holy symbols, The Lopper with an axe and the Splattermann with the spellbook." Kendra answers.
Jominda notes that down. "Now we have what? Fifty years of nothing and then this Necromancer takes the ghost of the warden and we are in deep shit. And you said the wardens wife kept the spirits in. Not a very good job she did, did she?"
"For all we know the Splatterman was after her." Kendra adds. "Gibbs used your blood to write the third letter of Vesorianna's name on the monument."
Jominda writes Gibs on the sheet and connects it to Vesorianna and Splattermann. "That's disgusting. My blood used for an evil spirits plan! How did Gibs end up doing the Splatterman's dirty work?"
"I don't know. But Gibs' house is the one which is closest to the Harrowstone." Kendra comments.
Jominda looks at Stam as he comes back in. "I guess you mean is still everyone alive right?" she asks rhetorically with a grin.
Turning the sheet around she start another list. "The ones influenced by the ghosts, or at least not normal here were
- first Gibs, however that was done.
- then the skeletons and corpses from the cemetery.
- then the lamps exploding in the meeting hall with the flying skulls.
- and the explosion at the Outward Inn.
Besides that I don't know. You heard yourself what the people told about haunting experiences at the town hall meeting. But despite the ghosts trying hard to kill someone, they failed at that. Lucky us." Jominda stated cheerfully.
Darius sits in silence and just watches everything play out and has another sip of tea.
Harrowstone's influence might have spread due to several objects being taken out, something we did when we removed the cursed items.
"So nothing happened prior to you gentlemen started to investigate? I get the felling that the dead Warden did a better job than his wife, maybe because of his skills in real life or not. Maybe we are just over thinking this?"
Stam will sit back down, "So you have to report to the council and then help Ms. Lorrimor to get settled? Then to the university to make some tomes more secure and collect your reward?"
Stam will turn to Kendra, "How can we help you get settled here?"
Indeed, wait for a month to pass then we can head out. So we should let the sheriff know so his mind is at rest.
Oh the warden deninately did a better job at keeping the spirits contained. Mrs. Hawkran told us specifically that she was barely hanging on, and they would escape soon if we did not help her put the five major prisoners spirits to rest and get her husbands badge to her in soon.
So maybe the goal was simply to let the prisoners spirits out. But why anyone would want to do that is frankly beyond me. I mean we saw what happened when one got partly released... releasing all five would have caused great chaos....
He lets that thought hang in the air for a bit before speaking up again.
If we are writing down all the people in Harrowstone we should probably write down the criminals real names. They are right here on these tags.
He pulls out the five cursed items and calls off their names.
The Chopper: Vance Saetressle
Father Charlatan: Sefick Corvin
"Piper of Illmarsh"
The Splatterman: Hean Feramin
The Mosswater Maurader: Ispin Onyxcudgel
Chaos could have been the goal, make it so everyone is overwhelmed by the haunts from Harrowstone that they wouldn't bother with chasing after who let them out.
"Or to scare them into leaving the town? The Whispering Way is evil and could use the bodies left over as minions"
Harrowstone would make a good lair for them if everyone else is dead or fled.
We are just guessing at this point. Until we get more information, I think Miss Fallenbridge has the right idea. We should just write down what we know and make sure the town is truely safe.
If we find more clues we can pick up this conversation again.
Jominda turns her paper again and adds the real names of the four ghosts. "What's with The Piper's real name?"
So the axe can still be of use to us now that it is cleansed, we can keep it in case we meet another haunt.
"You mean the items are not cursed anymore?" Kendra asks. Recollecting all the facts it makes total sense. She picks up the cover of the mouldy spellbook gingerly. She carefully checks if the writings still appear on the margins.
As they don't she asks "If you don't mind I would like to study this book."
Stam motions for her to do so, " Be my guest, I would like it back once you are done with it, please. There may more in there that I have yet to see."
"Thanks." Kendra replies with a smile and pulls the book over to her. Flipping through the pages she casts read magic to recognise the spells.
"Well, that is disappointing. Not a single divination spell. And all this evocation. I guess these two are best." she says and gets up to fetch her own spellbook, a quill and the golden ink. She then starts carefully to study the spells.
Have we ever found the Pipers real name? I do not remember it. But it is probably in these papers...
Grergof pulls out the papers of prisoners transferring in, and starts looking for the pipers name starting from the latest entry.
"This needs more tea." Darius says as he stands and heads to the kitchen to brew more tea for everyone.
"Something to eat as well."