Sharien inspects the cylinders, giving them an extremely thorough look-over.
"I think I'm actually going to have a crack at the Father this morning to see if we can get any more information. Being a local he might remember me and I might have some luck twisting the old geezers...I mean respected fathers arm."
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Faria nods stiffly to Poshment. "Good luck with that." She gives the cylinders, then Sharien a glance. Thinking that it probably takes a bit of concentration, Faria returns to the Professor's chest, taking out each of the other books, shaking them thoroughly just in case there are any hidden notes or anything else in them. At no point does she inspect the actual books' contents themselves, though. They don't seem very nice.
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Sharien's Examination of the Cylinders:
Brief Results: Sharien remembers a theoretical paper that Petros wrote some time ago. He thought that it could be possible to de-power haunts. These devices look like what he called "Haunt Siphons."
If it deals enough damage to the haunt to reduce the haunt’s hit points to 0, the mist inside the haunt siphon glows green—if it does not reduce the haunt to 0 hit points, the haunt siphon is still expended and becomes nonmagical. It may take multiple haunt siphons to destroy powerful haunts. A haunt that is neutralized by a haunt siphon takes a –5 penalty on its caster level check to manifest again after its reset time passes.
A haunt siphon that neutralizes a haunt can no longer be used to harm haunts, but it can be used as a grenadelike splash weapon that deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage with a direct hit. Every creature within 5 feet of the point where the haunt siphon hits takes 1 point of negative energy damage from the splash.
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Faria's Cursory Examination of the Books:
There are no further loose papers. However, despite the cursory nature of her examination, Faria cannot help but notice a thing or two about the books.
The locked purple book remains locked and yields no further clues on its own.
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"Poshment, I believe that the good Father will require a slow and steady approach. It will ultimately take many visits to gain his trust and gather the information we seek, I believe." Faria seems quite confident in her statement. In truth, his initial rejection hurt her feelings and ego, as she thought herself a good speaker and adept at getting people to open up to her.
"Very interesting. These cylinders will actually destroy dangerous sprits, making them harmless. They will be EXTREMELY useful to us, and I will work hard at finding out how to acquire more of them!"
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Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
You catch an acolyte in a good mood. He shows you to Father Grimburrow who is doing some paperwork.
Grimburrow immediately addresses Faria: "Ye again! Hmph! Can't take 'No' fer an answer, eh?"
Faria knows that he's actually very impressed that she came back despite his critical tone during their last meeting. He admires her tenacity.
Looking at Faria right in the eyes, he asks gruffly: "Well? Speak up! Pharasma knows I haven't got all day. What do ye want?" The others might (or might not) notice, but Faria catches a slight curve in his mouth. He's trying to hide a smile.
Poshment clears his throat and steps between the father and Faria. "I have actually come to address some matters my father was looking into before he...passed. He takes a deep breath and continues "But first I wanted to thank you for all your help yesterday it means a lot to my sister and I." He will offer out his hand to the father.
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Faria waits politely for Poshment to finish, lips compressing at the Father's curt tone. She has an inkling that he is toying with her, but it still grates on her nerves, young as she is.
"I am here to offer my praise and worship to the Lady of Graves, and also to ask if you had reconsidered my request from yesterday, sir. We believe that list of names could be very valuable in our research into Professor Lorrimor's death." Faria keeps her tone respectful, very conscious of her fellows around her as she awaits the Father's response.
"Please good father we need that list." Poshment chimes in. He's trying to stay out of what ever Father Grimburrow and Faria have going on between them but he figured butting in wouldn't hurt to much.
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Grimburrow nods at the young cleric: "Ye're disciplined! Good!"
He leans towards her slightly: "Maybe some of that will rub off on this fellow. Ain't he supposed ta be lawful or summit?"
"Well we don't have a 'list of names' as such. Whenever there's an accident, we don't create a file and label it 'all the stuff what happened in this particular accident'." He carries on a bit, sounding more like a senile old man than the powerful cleric you know him to be.
"... and another thing: young people these days..."
Finally: "Fine! Ye can look through the records. But before I show ye ta the records room, I demand to be kept informed about yer investigations! Now, are ye going to tell me about what ye found yesterday?"
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Faria's cheeks flush pink, her eyes dropping at the priest's question. After gathering herself, she looks the man in the eye as she replies, "We found a cache of items in a fake crypt in the Restlands, planted there by Pharasmans long ago. The Professor had hoped to gather these items before heading to Harrowstone, I'm assuming."
"Just some supplies for fighting off ghosts, ghasts, and other undead monstrosities. My father believed that the prison was haunted and was looking into that when he died. We've decided to continue his quest while we look over Kendra."
Poshment will set to work researching Harrowstone, specifically the men that were imprisoned there.
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OK. If Sharien takes the leads and you two assist her that's good enough! Whew!
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You may now research these notorious criminals with Knowledge (history) or Knowledge (local). Pick one.
Research on the Criminals
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Poshment's research reveals:
Originally, Harrowstone housed only local criminals, but as the prison’s fame spread, other counties and distant lands began paying to have more dangerous criminals housed within this prison’s walls. At the time of the great Harrowstone Fire, the number of particularly violent or dangerous criminals imprisoned within the dungeons below was at an all-time high.
Sharien is very knowledgeable about these prisoners. Maybe a little TOOO knowledgeable. Hopefully her deep knowledge of these criminals doesn't make Poshment start asking questions... ;)
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Sharien Discovers:
The five most notorious prisoners in Harrowstone at the time of the great fire were Father Charlatan, the Lopper, the Mosswater Marauder, the Piper of Illlmarsh, and the Splatter Man.
There's a separate check for each of the 5 prisoners. But, since Sharien blew the DC out of the water, I'll give you the first one:
Of the five notorious prisoners, only Father Charlatan was not technically a murderer, yet his crimes were so blasphemous that several churches demanded he be punished to the full extent of Ustalavic law. Although he claimed to be an ordained priest of any number of faiths, Father Corvin was in fact a traveling con artist who used faith as a mask and a means to bilk the faithful out of money in payment for false miracles or cures. He became known as Father Charlatan after his scheme was exposed and his Sczarni accomplices murdered a half-dozen city guards in an attempt to make good the group's escape.
"This Father Charlatan sounds like he was a very unscrupulous individual... I'm sure his ghost haunts the place."
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Sharien is only able to discover more info about The Mosswater Marauder. Real name: Ispin Onyxcudgel.
Only 5 years before his hometown of Mosswater was destined to be overrun and ruined by monsters from the nearby river, Ispin Onyxcudgel was a well-liked artisan and a doting husband. When he discovered his wife's infidelity, he flew into a jealous rage and struck her dead with his hammer, shattering her skull and his sanity with one murderous blow. Wracked with shame and guilt, Ispin became convinced that if he could rebuild his wife's skull she would come back to life—but unfortunately, he could not find the last blade-shaped fragment from the murder site. So instead, Ispin became the Mosswater Marauder. Over the course of several weeks, the cunning dwarf stalked and murdered nearly 20 people while searching for just the right skull fragment. He was captured just before murdering the daughter of a visiting nobleman from Varno, and was carted off to Harrowstone that same night.
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Hm... What the heck. If we take Poshment's last roll and say that was an Aid Another:
The Piper of Illmarsh (real name unknown).
Before he snatched his victims, the Piper taunted his targets with a mournful dirge on his flute. He preferred to paralyze lone victims by dosing their meals with lich dust and then allowed his pet stirges to drink the victims dry of blood.
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Faria shakes her head in disgust. "It makes me feel dirty just reading about these people. That someone could do that to their fellow man...horrendous."
She looks to her companions. "I suppose we should go check out the remains of the prison, then. The Professor seemed to think something was going on there."
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Faria shakes her head in disgust. "It makes me feel dirty just reading about these people. That someone could do that to their fellow man...horrendous."
She looks to her companions. "I suppose we should go check out the remains of the prison, then. The Professor seemed to think something was going on there."
Grog nods and lifts his axe. I agree. My axe is getting restless
Go back where, Grog?
[ooc]that was OOC :) The prison[/occ]
On the way out Poshment will stop boy the fathers office and update him of our findings and let him know we're going to be stopping by the prison to take a peak.
On the way to the prison he'll speak with lady Faria. "Faria, remind me when we get back to pop in to the constables office. I want to see if he's made a report about my fathers death."
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Faria approaches Father Grimburrow. "Sir, we found some disturbing reports about some prisoners housed at Harrowstone. It seems they were keeping a group of prisoners with souls at black as pitch at the time of the riots and fires. Since the Professor thought it important, we are going to investigate the site itself."
Faria nods to Poshment. "Of course, brother." The priestess gathers her adventuring gear and gets ready to head out the short distance to Harrowstone.
"No worries Zorra you are traveling with Sir Poshment Galier, the most careful paladan ever" he says puffing his chest out and then almost tripping over something.
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Before you can leave the temple, a local comes rushing in: "Father Grimburrow! Father Grimburrow! It's the monument! Somebody has defaced it! It's covered in blood." The man's voice trails off a bit: "So much blood..."
The elderly Pharasmin responds: " Well, what're ye tellin' me fer?!? Go git tha sheriff, boy!"
The local nods: "Y-y-y-yessir!"
The Pharasmin yells after him: "Run! Don't walk ta tha sheriff, boy! RUN!" Father Grimburrow then says with a sigh (mostly to himself): "Well. I better git. See what's what."
He moves slowly. Glacially. Paint dries faster.