As you take in the scene your eye is drawn to the amount of blood. You follow it's trail toward the river where, chillingly, you see a bobbing mass caught in the thicket of branches partway downstream
You strain to recall every detail about the Prison fire you have learnt and remember that the warden's wife was called Vesoriana
In a peculiar gesture, the sheriff sweeps his hat from his head. As he does so you can see the lines of weariness around his dark eyes.
I meant no offence miss he casts a glance to make sure he is not over heard ... Ummmm. I had to make sure everything was... Cleaned up... Last night. Took longer than I thought.
KAzamir, after nudging his compatriots and gesturing with his chin at the trail - trying to communicate subtly for the sake of the crowd ( ) will circle back behind the crowd and work his way towards the river. He will walk well off of the trail of blood, scanning the earth for tracks, and stop as soon as he has a good look at the floating mass.
Zed quietly hangs around the scene of the crime, staying quiet and looking busy, but paying attention to the bystanders in the area. He looks for anybody that is acting oddly or seems on edge or paying too much attention to their surroundings.
Eventually the crowd falls back to a reasonable distance and one of the Sheriff’s deputies manages to hold them there. Aside from gawping and rubber necking, nobody appears to be paying anymore attention than you might expect in a small town like this.
He returns to the group. His jaw works as he grits his teeth and he taps one foot impatiently, clearly trying to decide on something. Eventually he sighs and says;
Listen, this might be against my better judgement with your standing in town and all, but after what happened to the professor last night and now this, I ain’t too much of a small town sheriff to think I got all the answers. Something is obviously going on, and you folks all seems capable and learned. If you’ve got some input on this I’d sure like to hear it. Benjen admits, looking somewhat hopeful.
The body in the river looks pink and bloated. The trees hold it in place but as you get closer it dislodges and rolls over, a wide black eye seemingly looking directly at you. It is the body of a pig.
"SHERIFF!", Kazamir calls, beckoning, before descending the bank for a closer look at the pig, seeing if it is showing wounds, and if they are claw-like tears or knife-like slashes.
"I'd venture a guess that, at least, the blood scattered about is not all human, so we are probably looking at an act of vandalism rather than murder. Though, some farmer may be out a pig..."
in response to the sheriff's words, he nods sharply. "Thank you. I appreciate the delicate position such a request puts you in. I'll certainly help, and we will all do our level best to leave the town's feathers as unruffled as possible..."
Constantin snaps his fingers. "Vesoriana, that was her name." He points at the "V" painted on the memorial.
Benjen strides to Kazamir.
A pig? he says, breathlessly. At least that's something, no more murders.
He crouches at the river bank and, like Kazamir, tries to examine the carcass.
After a few moments he scratches at the stubble on his chin and says;
These cuts.... he indicates with a finger. ...look like a knife. But.. I don't know there are a lot of them, stab wounds too. Almost frenzied.
Kazamir has to agree with the Sheriff's summation.
"It's increasingly dreadful business, regardless of how that pig was bled." Vala shakes her head and her gaze drifts toward the distant ruins of Harrowstone. "Petros was worried something ill was going on up at the old prison. Caught up as we are all now, I think we're going to have to pick up where he'd left off if we're to make any sense of all this." Her words are quiet and subdued, shadowed by threats and dangers nebulously looming in her mind but with no clear or definitive source.
"No offense taken, Sheriff...I think we're all pretty tired today," she murmurs in reply. Then, in a surprising moment of introspection and openness, she adds, "My mother always told me that I needed to keep a tighter reign on my tongue and my temper both. Don't pay me too much mind if I'm being grumpy."
"I think you're right, Vala. Seems like we've got no other real choice in the matter. This should make the rest of our stay here interesting, to say the least," Hazel chuckles grimly. Gazing up at the statue, she adds, "So the 'V' could stand for this Vesoriana? But why? What's the significance? She's been dead for what, 50 years?"
"So far, our experience has been that being dead hasn't been a barrier to doing things," Constantin quips with a bit of black humor.
"With your permission, Sheriff..." Kaz mutters, not really waiting for it, as he strides over toward the monument itself. He examines the ground around it, looking for tracks or signs that a living - or at least corporeal - being did this. Or didn't.
Perception = 30.
When he has completed this survey, he will cast detect psychic significance and scan the area.
School divination; Level medium 0, mesmerist 0, occultist 0, psychic 0, spiritualist 0
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Effect
Range 40 ft.
Area 40-ft.-radius burst, centered on you
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Description
You detect the presence of psychically significant items in your vicinity. Such items are those that might have significant psychic imprints or histories that can be read by the psychometry occult skill unlock (see page 196), or items under the effects of the charge object or implant false reading spells. Items within range that contain significant psychic energy spark a recognition in your mind’s eye, but no other information is imparted. This spell doesn’t automatically detect magic items or strongly aligned items, though such items often have storied histories and might have had previous owners who possessed psychic abilities.
"I wish I could be more use with things like this, but I have to admit that 'investigation' wasn't exactly on the list of topics of study when I underwent my training..."
Kazamir gives a wry, quiet snort. "It was almost the entirety of mine...to the exclusion, as I'm sure you all could tell last night, of practical things like preserving my own skin in a fight..."
After a few more quiet moments observing, he asks the Sheriff, "Who in the town would have the best information about Harrowstone's fire and its casualties?"
Harrowstone? the sheriff says quizzically. I assumed whatever this means it was done here just 'cos it's convenient - quiet, outside of town. Hell, it's only Gibs Hephanus who lives anywhere near here. You think it's more than that?
He mulls over the question.
I guess the townhall... the Church as well.
Kazamir examines the scene carefully.
He agrees with Benjen's deduction about the pig, in fact he is quite impressed by it. The cuts look like they were made with a short-bladed implement, probably only single edged. It was razor-sharp and the wounds are numerous, eventhough a single slash would have served the purpose of bleeding the animal enough to daub the 'V' on the statue.
The sheriff's deputies appear to have made something of a mess of the scene in terms of tracks, their boots going this way and that. It takes you a while, but you are nothing if not patient, and eventually you find a set that leads back in the direction of town. Unfortunately as you follow them and they rejoin the stonier path, they are lost.
Vala nods as the sheriff confirms her early guess that the church might have notable records regarding the prison then shakes her head helplessly at the bloody scene again. "Well, perhaps we can spend the rest of the day learning what we might of the prison? If," she hesitates for a moment, choosing her next words carefully, "fell forces are at work up at the prison and we mean to stop them like Petros intended, we'll want to know all we can before walking into Nethys-knows-what."
Kazamir sighs as he loses the trail, though he keeps in mind what was said about thier old friend Gibs.
"I can find nothing more here. Let us check on the town hall and church, see what we can learn. Sheriff, I will be happy to drop by this evening and let you know of anything that we turn up."
Turning to his new colleagues, he goes on. "Shall we split up? Zed, I think, was planning to go to the church anyway. I will head to the town hall. Anyone else, to either place?"
"Then I'll join Kaz at the town hall," says Constantin.
Well this is another mess I better clean up then. Benjen says, shaking his head. He looks up quickly then and says;
Miss Hazel. Make sure you're careful. Umm... all of you. he adds hurriedly and somewhat awkwardly. There's something strange going on.
The town hall is a large red-brick building with attractive facade. It seems like a multipurpose building serving both as a civic centre, place of record and wedding venue for secular events.
After speaking to a few clerks, Kazamir and Constantin talk their way into the record halls, a large dank room in the basement where box upon box of paper files sit stacked on top of eachother.
Back at the imposing Temple of Pharasma, Zed and Hazel look for Father Grimburrow.
Vala starts to leave with Zed and Hazel for the church, but she stops short and casts a long look over her shoulder at Benjen. Waving the pair along, "Go on, you two, I'll be along shortly," she turns back and comes up alongside the sheriff. "Benjen? Just because we've seen some horrid things since the funeral, don't think I'm not thinking of you too, dear. These are terribly dark and grim things you're having to deal with and if there's anything I can do to help you, all you need to do is ask. I mean it. Even if it's just some company and someone to talk to while disposing of a pig and washing some stone slab." She offers the dutiful man a kind smile and pats his hand endearingly.
HP: 9/9
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 10
F/R/W: +3/+0/+6 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Prepared spells
Orisons (3) | DC 14: daze, disrupt undead, read magic
Level 1 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 15: cure light wounds [ ], identify* [ ], produce flame (CL2) [ ]
Ongoing Effects
I won't lie, Ms Vala, I wan't really prepared for what I saw at the Lorrimor Place last night. But I'll be damned if I let this carry on if there's anything I can do about it. Folks might hate me as much as some of you lot after this, but I can see you're jus' tryin' to help. he flicks the brim of his hat to Vala in a wonderfully old fashioned show of gratitude and respect.
"We will get to the bottom of this." Zed states firmly. He returns back to the familiar temple, searching for Father Grimburrow.
Vala smiles, her eyes bright despite the overcast gloom of the morning. "I just hope we're able to get to the bottom of whatever the root of this madness is quickly. You and your neighbors don't deserve any of this."
Longer post later...
Hazel is pointed to the back of the hall where Grimburrow can be seen hunched over a series of candles.
Several townsfolk are sitting quietly in the pews and begin to whisper as you pass.
He turns as he hears you approach.
Pharasma's Pateince, what's happened now?
Grimburrow ushers the pair into a separate vestibule and looks at them expectantly.
The Vaults ain't just open to anyone, what could ya want in there?
And you think all of this is related to the prison somehow? But why, what would they want up there, the whole place is damn near falling down. Best thing for it too, I was just a kid when that fire happened. Could hear the screams even here in town. he shakes his head.
I wouldn't do it normally. But after what happened last night and since one of you at least understands the importance that death has for the living; he gestures to Zed. Aye, access the vaults if you like. I don't know what you'll find there that'll help though.
Zed let's the superior talker take charge, but does throw in his two copper pieces. "She speaks the truth. I fear the worst is yet to come unless we get on top of this, and I believe the church must take the opportunity to be proactive."
Zed lowers his head respectfully. "We appreciate your understanding, father. I give you my personal guarantee we will only use this knowledge for the betterment of your town and the safety of these people."
At the town hall, Kazamir politely gets the attention of the first person that he can.
"Good day - the Sheriff sent us here, that we might search for records of Harrowstone. Could you please direct us to the person to whom we should speak about the archives?"
Whichever, all three are the same bonus, so the roll is 18+8+1 for 27. If different skills reveal different things, I'll do Know/local.
Valavastra arrives at the church after Hazel and Zed have already settled into a pair of desks in the Vault. She smiles at the pair as she quietly walks in, "It looks like Father Grimburrow was sympathetic to our cause, I take it? Nicely done, you two. Now, how can I help?"
partially destroyed by a fire in 4661, the building has
stood vacant ever since. The locals suspect that it’s
haunted, and don’t enjoy speaking of the place.
Harrowstone was built in 4594. Ravengro
was founded at the same time as a place where guards and
their families could live and that would produce food and
other supplies used by the prison. The fire that killed all
of the prisoners and most of the guards destroyed a large
portion of the prison’s underground eastern wing, but
left most of the stone structure above relatively intact.
The prison’s warden perished in the fire, along with his
wife, although no one knows why she was in the prison
when the fire occurred. A statue commemorating the
warden and the guards who lost their lives was built in
the months after the tragedy—that statue still stands on
the riverbank just outside of town.
to Harrowstone spent only a few months imprisoned, for
it was here that most of Ustalav’s executions during that
era were carried out. The fire that caused the tragedy was,
in fact, a blessing in disguise, for the prisoners had rioted
and gained control of the prison’s dungeons immediately
prior to the conf lagration. It was only through the selfsacrifice
of Warden Hawkran and 23 of his guards that
the prisoners were prevented from escaping—the guards
gave their lives to save the town of Ravengro.
particularly notorious criminals had recently arrived at
the prison. While the commonly held belief is that the
tragic fire began accidentally after the riot began, in fact
the seven prisoners had already led the riot and seized control
of the dungeon and had been in command of the lower level for
several hours before the fire. Warden Hawkran triggered a
deadfall to seal the rioting prisoners in the lower level,
but in so doing trapped himself and nearly two dozen
guards. The prisoners were in the process of escaping
when the panicked guards accidentally started the fire in
a desperate attempt to end the riot.
KAzamir will share what he has learned with Constantin, and, later back at the Lorimorr house, everyone else.
"One wonders if this 'Gravedigger' is the focus of the Whispering Way's interest. A necromancer, perhaps? In any case, I should think that we need to pursue these names tomorrow."
After eight hours hunched over ledgers in the town hall, Kazamir will take a quick stroll around the town square before heading back to Kendra's house.
Vala calls Hazel and Zed over after a time and points to a scratched notation in the margin of an old, dusty collection of transcriptions made up of various ledger entries, work orders, and prisoner transfers recovered from the prison. She points to the thinly scrawled notes and remarks, "See this? Sounds like there were a number of particularly foul prisoners and that Hawkran was forced to trigger a deadfall to stop a riot!" She gasps at this and shakes her head sadly. "Inread elsewhere the prisoners had rioted and started the fire, but this suggests the riot had already been gaining momentum for hours before a guard set the blaze by accident! If that's true, it's hardly a wonder the place is haunted now!"
After the drama of the morning and the comparatively mundane research in the afternoon, you head back to the Lorrimor place.
Inside you find Kendra to be in a flurry of activity. She seems to have spent most of the day packing boxes and crates with all mannor of items and books and without them lining the walls of the entrance hall the place looks surprisingly bare. Despite her efforts it is clear that the Professor had more possessions than could be reasonably expected in a home this size and it will take a significant amount of time to catalogue and pack everything.
For night 4, Kazamir will set up a bedroll in the dining room, with all of his equipment near at hand. (quite enough of bringing a club to a zombie fight, thank you!)
Assuming everyone wakes up alive in the morning (It IS Ustalav, after all) Kazamir will see who wishes to go with him back to the town hall to research the seven prisoners.
In case of Things That Go Bump In The Night:
Zed thanks the party for their help on going through the records. It is one of his few week points in investigations.
Also, when he returns to get some sleep, he sets his main weapon right under the bed and tucks a dagger inside his clothes.
"I'll go with you to research the prisoners. I have a few questions of my own."
As Vala makes to depart the church alongside Hazel and Zed, she pats the younger woman on the arm encouragingly as she nods toward Grimburrow. "I'll just be a moment."
Walking up to the wizened clergyman, Vala entreats, "Father? Thank you for your help so far. Last night was... well, more dreadful than I have words to express. I thought you'd like to know, however, we found mention in one of Petros' old journals mention of a cache of supplies hidden in the Restlands by the Pharasmins some time ago. Petros didn't think you were aware of it and helped himself, but as we're expecting the worst from up at the prison and also strangers to your town, I thought it'd be prudent and right to ask. I'm hoping you'll grant us permission to use some of the supplies? Even if you'd prefer the church not get any more involved with us, which I would understand given the recent tragedies, I'd still be happy to show you to the site if you aren't already aware of it. Whatever your forebears tucked away won't do anyone any good collecting dust in a mausoleum, after all." She smiles softly, the wrinkles beneath her eyes deepening with the expression.