Sharien casts a ray of frost at one of them.
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These are clearly champion stirges, since they're so hard to hit! ;-P
One of the stirges wants to eat: . Its barbed legs wrap around one of Grog's muscular arms, and it stabs its proboscis into the half-orc's flesh. The ranger can feel the creature sucking out his lifeblood.
Sharien Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
Stirge Init: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18
Faria Init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17
Stirge Init: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Grog Init: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (9) + 0 = 9
Gravleon Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Faria is up!
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Grog's AoO: ,
Grog smashes the previous stirge that had attached itself to him. That attack never happened.
The next stirge lands on Grog, since the ranger doesn't habve combat reflexes. Using the previous rolls that never happened, Grog still suffers at 1 point of CON damage.
Faria, Grog, and Gravleon are up.
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OK. Why don't we head to area T4?
Row upon row of ten-foot-square prison cells line the walls, each separated from the passing hallway by a series of iron bars fitted with a narrow iron door. Skeletons slump in many of the cells, the bones scattered where they lie and coated with a mixed layer of ancient ashes and fresh mold.
Blackheath, Gravleon, and Grog all notice the faint sound of a mournful flute music and the eerie flapping of tiny leathery wings.
"Music? I don't hear..."
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Since at least one person wants to stay:
Suddenly, everyone can hear the music.
Everyone except Sharien is shaken. Furthermore, one random person has an additional effect.
The bard suddenly has a vision of the ghostly Piper himself as he approaches, attended by a flock of stirges. Nobody else can see this.
Blackheath weeps as blood momentarily flows from a dozen tiny punctures that spontaneously open along his arms and neck.
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Since at least one person wants to leave:
The party decides to run. Grog physically hauls the bard the heck outta there!
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Faria begins to shake as the music continues, the haunting dirge getting into her head. All thoughts of staying in the area to confront the Piper or whatever might manifest quickly evaporate as everyone shuffles towards the exit, Blackheath having to be dragged.
Once they are on the first floor, Faria nods, attempting to calm down. "Let us return to town for some rest and research as you suggested, Gravleon."
Though for once Sharien is not terrified by the haunt, she agrees to haul butt out of there and prepare better.
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"A villager will be dead tonight, if one isn't already, if we allow this to happen again. Even if defeating the prison were to stop this, we cannot cleanse the prison in a day. And the prison was not what Petros asked us to deal with. I think we need to investigate and check on all the villagers while looking for possible cultists and then we can try an ambush here tonight."
"But we really need to find the vandal before he gets here because we are out of time. It looks like he slaughters whatever he uses elsewhere (no body). So by the time he reaches the monument tonight, someone will already be dead."
"I agree. While the blood is not on our hands, we have done little to stop these murders so far, it would seem. We must prepare more thoroughly and stop this haunting at its source quickly."
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Faria sighs, nodding to Blackheath and Sharien's words. She had been hoping to rest and possibly grieve for Poshment, but it seemed there would be no lull. He was with the Lady of Graves now, so if anything she should envy him, anyway.
"Who would we ask for help on determining which villagers might be associated with The Whispering Way? Most of the people of Ravengro are distrustful of us, and I would think that Kendra would have voiced her suspicions if she had any."
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Oh ,now we will worry abot the vandal but when I said it was a problem Noooooo lets dddooo tthhiisss, Sarenrea help me Gravleon thought to himself "ok then now can we try to get this vandal Yeess good, so your awake now blackheath, Sharien no the blood is not on our hands but some of the towns folk will have no issue blaming the new stangers...us for this, if only to protect themselves.."
Gravleon turns to Faria "yes most of the people here already don't like us and we do need to take care of this vandal before we try and take that piper as it nearly done in blackheath in a moment"
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A fine dark brow arched as the priestess smirked. "I think you might be overreacting a bit, Gravleon. We ran out in a panic before anything really happened."
Faria shrugged. "I would say that Harrowstone is where we should focus our efforts, but if we are to remain in town to stop these vandalisms, we might as well investigate these other rumors we have heard."
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With it being evening, Faria heads to Kendra Lorrimor's estate for a bite to eat. She tells the woman of Poshment's demise, holding back her tears as she speaks of the terrible phantasms in the structure.
After eating, she turns to her companions. "Should we just go camp by the monument as was suggested earlier? It's already nightfall."
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"I'll hide at the monument so that I can keep an eye on it. I have low-light vision so if the vandal can't see in the dark, then I should be able to spot him by whatever light he uses. The rest of the group can hide some distance away and I will use a Message spell to let you know if I see anything. If anyone can put an alarm spell on the momnument that might help too."
So the rest of the group should conceal themselves far enough away that he won't see them, but close enough that we can still maintain the message spell.