"Now that is interesting." Jominda states and uses her approved technique for doors throwing herself at it.
As soon as the door flies from it's hinges a ghostly figure of a beautiful young woman dressed in a tattered but lovely blue dress rises from the heap of fabric. In fact, much about the ghost is blue, including her hair, the tears that run from her pale blue eyes, and the clouds of smoke that drift from her lips.
Seeing the scissors and needles and stuff and the ghost Jominda jumps to the side to hide behind the wall. "You said they can't leave the room, right?" Jominda asks as she ruined the opportunity to just close the door again.
"Hello?"
"That might be true of poltergeist and it might be true of this ghost." Grimburrow says to Jominda.
To the ghost he says "Can you understand me?"
"Sure I do. Why wouldn't I? Are you the new guards from town?" the ghost asks.
"Well that is strange indeed... We are from town, but are not the new guard. Who are you?"
"I'm Vesorianna Hawkran, wife of the prison's Warden. Do you know when the new guards will be coming?"
"Why should there be a new guard? What happened?" Grimburrow asks skirting the issue, feeling very uneasy about communing with a ghost that obviously doesn't know it is dead.
"The prison burnt down and it killed everyone. The prisoners, my husband, and the guards. Those cowards. And me thanks to them. They locked me in here 'for my own safety'. A lot of good that did to me."
"Ever since I'm bound to this room. But I could always feel the presence of my husband in the building. He kept the evil spirits of the prisoners in check. But a short time ago some sinister persons appeared on the Harrowstone grounds. They performed some kind of ritual. And ever since my husband is gone. And now I'm the last one to keep the prisoners ghosts from leaving. But the Splatterman is slowly eating away my resolve. If no new guards come they will become free eventually." Vesorianna explains.
"At least you know you are dead..." Grimburrow says thinking. :We may not be guards but we are here to put an end to the evil here as it is disturbing the town. What is this 'Splatterman'?" he asks.
In all his years Grimburrow has never imagined he would be having a proper conversation with an undead, as it is his duty to send any he encounters unto Pharasma.
"The Splatterman is one of the five most notorious prisoners here. If you want to end the evil you have to end the ghosts of these five. If you do this and bring me the badge of my husband I can bring an end to this. But without it and with these five resisting me I don't have the power to do that." Vesorianna explains.
Kendra peeks over Vauran's shoulder. "Hello Misses Hawkran. These five, would these be, uh.." She thinks hard, and lists what she remembers: "Vance Saetressle, Stephan Corvin, the splatterman, Ispin 'the Mosswater Marauder' Onyxcudgel and the Piper of... some marsh?"
"I don't know this Vance Seatressle or Stephen Corvin. The five are the Mosswater Marauder, The Piper of Illmarsh, Father Charlatan, The Lopper and The Splatterman. I have no idea what their real names are." Vesorianna replies.
Jominda looks carefully into the room too. "And what about you? No offense - but you're an undead too. It's not ok for you to hang around here."
Vesorianna smiles "If you put the ghosts of the prisoners to rest, then I'm free to pass on."
"Who put you in this room? And why did they think it would be a good idea?" Kendra wonders aloud
"I was here to get my husband for dinner only to find myself in the midst of a riot. Not in the midst - the main part of it were in the basement and they tried to get out. But the guard put me in here and when the fire broke out I couldn't leave." she replies ghostly smoke coming out of her mouth.
"That is horrible." Kendra sympathises. Before she takes everything at face value though, she wants to know if she can trust this ghost and tries to remember as much as she can about the Warden and his wife.
"How many of them ghosts is there? Just to get an idea what we are up against here." Jominda asks.
"There are a lot of undead and haunts here. But you only need to take care of these five I told you." Vesorianna replies.
"And how do we distinguish these five from the others?" Jominda inquires.
"You can recognise me. I guess you'd recognize them when you encounter them." Vesorianna answers.
"not to be offensive, Misses Hawkran, but... how do we know you speak the truth, and aren't working on a power grab yourself? I know some of the inmates here seemed truly evil, but... well, I figure we should remain careful of taking advice from anyone we don't know."
"I can't leave because I have unfinished business here. And the evil ghosts are here for the same reason. I told you what my unfinished business is. As you're here and the gentleman here talked of evil disturbing the town I guess you already know what their unfinished business is. So you're going to face them anyway." Vesorianna replies with disappointment in her voice.
"That's true." Kendra concedes. "My apologies if I caused any offense."
"Just fight those five criminals and bring me the badge of my husband. That's all what I ask for." Vesorianna replies. "As for where to find them - They are probably like me. So you'd find them where they were imprisoned in life. The cells of the most dangerous criminals were in the basement. The others on the upper floor. Good luck." After that last explanation the ghost sinks back into the pile of moldy clothes.
"Did you manage to upset a ghost?" Jominda asks with a smirk on her face.
"I didn't mean to..." Jominda explains. "We should look for a manifest, on which prisoners are... were kept where."
"Sorry, the offices were cleared. No luck with that approach." Jominda replies. "But she gave one really helpful information. None of them should be on this floor. So that ugly syringe throwing thing is not one of them."
"Thank the gods for that." Kendra replies. "You found the way down already, didn't you?"
"Well, yes and no." Jominda replies "I found where the stairs are that lead up and the ones down. But if Jorfa wasn't a miner earlier in her life and still has the tools we are not taking that way down. Somehow the ceiling fell on the stairs and blocks the way."
"The one leading up are fine. I just hope the ceiling there doesn't decide to come down too while we're on them. I wonder why that happened. The rest of the building looks rather sturdy."
Kendra looks defeated. "So we need to find a different way down?"
"How about we take the way up first?" Jominda suggests "Maybe we're lucky and find all of them up there and don't need to dig through the rubble." She doesn't believe that herself but hope dies last. And she deems it highly improbable that the upper floor can be ignored completely so why not start the easy way.
Kendra follows Jominda up, and looks around carefully.
"It seems quiet here," she says, but as her arm still hurts, she isn't quite willing to be the first one in.
As she enters the floor which is lighted though the holes in the roof and the missing walls to the east Jominda looks to the left and right and states "It's almost nice up here."
"Wait, something's flying over there. Maybe bats." she tells and readies a bomb.
"Perhaps we should look for any clues before you burn them?" Grimburrow states panting slightly after the climb.
"If they come at me they're toast. Clues or not." Jominda replies and moves two steps to look around the corner.
Jominda throws the bomb at one of the beasts sitting at the roof.
"Eeeeh, there are cat sized mosquitoes"
Jominda flees from the attacking monsters hiding behind Father Grimburrow with her mace in hand. "You can investigate them now."
.
AS the bat-insects comes flying at her, she takes a wild swing with the but of her light crossbow.