Getting closer to the prison, you can see spidery runes etched across the foundations and then smeared with what looks to be dried blood. They run continuously around the building from what you can see.
Language- Varisian:
Aldous kneels down examining the spidery Varisian runes, "Lyvar Hawkran... Well this is disturbing. If these runes really circle the foundation I can't imagine how long this must have taken... unless it was a project for a large group. Even then-" He shakes his head. "With the blood... You don't go to that kind of trouble unless you are engaged in some serious ritual magic."
"Hawkren. Last warden of Harrowstone Prison from what I've read on the subject." He stands and looks at you all in concern, "The way they tell it, he sacrificed himself to prevent a jailbreak during a riot. If someone has invoked his spirit... I mean I can understand him sending out empathic waves of his last moments... trapped, the fire closing in... but why disturb Hawkren's rest?"
Trusting that Evelyn is now okay, Luka walks alongside Aldous toward the ruins. Along the way he briefly explains what the group has come to learn about the possible involvement of the Whispering Way.
"Hmmmm . . . possible necromancy? As I mentioned, if the Whispering Way is involved here, this could easily be their work," Luka says upon seeing the runes on the foundation.
Running his hand over the writing, Luka mutters an arcane phrase.
Arasmes leans in closely to inspect the writing. "I'm afraid I don't know much about blood, but how similar is this to the earlier defacement of Hawkren's statue?" .
The inscriptions no longer radiate any magic. While Luka can read what the incantations say, he's not sure it's something as simple as a spell.
Arasmes fidgets with the base of his neck as he gazes at the writing. He mutters to himself, listening to the voices that only he can hear, and only he can understand.
:
Trevor doesn't like staying so long in one place. He feels like some kind of lightning rod for paranormal creepies. He looks at the three scholars,, planting repeatedly the haft of his axe in the ground. He asks, his voice tinged with a touch of impatience, laced with nervousness: "Sure looks complicated... Are you guys ready to move on?"
Luka, Arasmes and Aldous determine through their pooled talents that the runes inscribed on the foundations were used in some kind of ritual involving magic from the schools of necromancy and abjuration.
"Thank you Luka, I'm unharmed, jsut a bit chaken."
Following the others, Evelyn stays close but back a few paces from the person in the lead, letting the scholors and mages piecethigns together.
"Necromancy....that seems to confirm the professors suspicions."
[ooc]Off to a wedding will be back saturday9/ooc]
Looking around, Luka says, "This could take some time. I think maybe we should have asked someone about where the Professor's body was found. Shall we just walk the perimeter until we find the scene of the crime?"
You walk the perimeter of the prison, noticing a balcony on the opposite side from the entrance, about 20 feet above ground. You're forced to turn back around when you reach the shore of the flooded sinkhole. You don't see any signs of where the professor was found.
DM Screen:
Roasting under his armor, boiling in his too small boots, Trevor is growing impatient. "So, we can't find where he was murdered. Is that it? Anyways, we still can see how wrong this place is and that something bad has happened here." He points at the blood markings on the wall. He lifts his axe slightly and adds: What we need to find out is how to put down the evil fire that burns here still and how to stop those who started it and their nefarious plans." He said nefarious as though he's read it somewhere recently and is his word of the month. Trevor is working hard on his goodspeak.
Seems theres not much to do now but check out inside this place."
"Agreed," says Luca, as he grins at Trevor's eagerness. "We came here to explore the ruins and find those responsible for the Professor's death. Let's take a look inside."
"I suppose it is time to meet whatever it is that killed the professor. Lead on," Arasmes agrees.
DM Screen:
Evelyn:
You all hear a humming or buzzing sound as you near the corner of the prison- it grows steadily in volume. As you attempt to figure out the source, you're stunned to see a stirge, bloated to the size of a halfling, darting down to poke its proboscis into Trevor!
Stirge initiative:
Stirge attack:
Trevor feels a painful sting as its needle-like proboscis breaks through his armor. Its spindly legs scrabble against his torso, wings flapping hungrily on its back as it tries to establish a foothold on the young paladin.
Grapple:
Using its weight and long limbs, it grabs hold of Trevor and starts sucking blood from his chest. Its grotesque and bloated thorax pumps with the effort.
Aldous shrieks (a bit like a housemaid it has to be said) when the monstrously bloated insects buzzes into view. His first instinct is to run and he starts to, but then out of the corner of his eye he sees it skewer Trevor and begin sucking the life right out of him. At that point his inclination is definitely to run, and his hand drops to a tiny pouch filled with horse hair for situations like these, but that's when he locks eyes with Trevor- trapped, struggling, eyes wild. Instead he shouts, "Take this you fiend!" and flings the remainder of the tea from his cup and with the other hand transmutes it to acid mid air.
Hearing the stirge as it descends,Evelyn shouts
"Duck!"
Taking aim, hoping to hit a vital spot, Evelyn lets fly an arrow.
Caught off guard, Trevor watches with horror the stirges dart plunge into him. He turns pale as he feels his legs giving way. Acting more on impulse, he drops everything and pulls back the creature, hoping to move it away from him. "Yikes! It's in me! Take it off! Take it off!"
Luka almost freezes at the unexpected attack, but then moves as fast as he can as the monstrosity latches on to Trevor. Drawing his sword, he tries to hack into it. However, in trying to be careful not to hit the youngster, his swing lacks the power to do any real damage.
Seeing the bloated thing attacking Trevor, Arasmes clumsily lunges at it, trying to pierce the stirge with his spear.
Trevor struggles unable to free himself and Aldous takes a deep breath steeling his nerves before doing something incredibly stupid. The scholar unshoulders his pack taking it by the straps in one hand and rushes the thing perched on the young knight. "Hya!! Take that! Get off him!" Aldous swings his backpack around wildly at the stirge trying to knock it off.
Evelyn lines up another shot for the vitals, taking care not to hit her companions.
Aldous' tea-acid scalds the stirge, its bulk shielding the young Trevor from its effects. Shortly thereafter Evelyn sends a shaft into the creature's bloated thorax while it's distracted with its struggling prey.
Initiative, Round 1
Giant Stirge- 25
Aldous- 23 (Aid Another- Trevor)
Evelyn- 22 (Arrow shot- miss)
Arasmes- 16 (Spear attack- hit)
Trevor- 16 (Break Grapple)
Luka- 9 (Attack- miss)
Despite sustaining damage, the stirge remains tethered to the unfortunate Trevor, hungrily draining more and more blood.
Maintaining grapple:
Until Trevor graps the beast by the proboscis, pulling the ravenous creature from his shoulders and tossing it into the air.
[ooc]Failed in trying to hold onto the grapple, so we'll pause for a second and let Aldous and Trevor adjust their actions.
Fighting the urge to start running in the opposite direction, Trevor slashes madly at the stirge.
Fighting the urge to start running in the opposite direction, Trevor slashes madly at the stirge.
Aldous swings his backpack at the stirge, seeking to crush it like a giant mosquito- or at least, to keep it off balance. Evelyn's aim is wide and her arrow spins off into the brush, but Arasmes' spear finds its mark, punching a bloody hole into the bloated thing. A visibly shaken Trevor fights his instinct to flee by doing just the opposite, driving his axe into the bat-mosquito thing, popping it in a gout of blood and insect parts. The young paladin is a bit nauseous and weak after the encounter with the thing, but the party stands victorious.
"Trevor, are you okay?" Arasmes races to the paladin's side, offering a shoulder to lean on. "Do you think you can keep going, or should we retreat for a bit so you can recover?"
"I guess I could use some of the potions we have, but I'd prefer to save it. But yeah, I'm woozy."
After the stirge pops like a bloated dog tick, Aldous wipes the spray from his face with one hand and looks down at his blood splattered vest in dismay then bends over to gag. A couple of dry heaves later, he recovers enough to gasp, "Funny how they always gloss over this part in the stories."
Arasmes seems lost in thought for a moment, listening. He then begins rubbing the base of his neck, as if he has a sore. He then touches Trevor.
It's a horrible feeling. As if some cold, uncaring force was inside Trevor, knitting him together. But after a moment, Trevor feels better. Still tired and woozy, but some of his wounds have healed.
"We're going to need your sword if we are to continue our investigations."
"I wonder if that stirge ahd a nest up on that balcony, or if it's been feeding on something up there. Either way we should put some distance between us and the balcony, just incase there are more around."
Luka pokes through the remains of the stirge with his sword. Nodding at Trevor, he says, "You're a braver lad then you give yourself credit for. Well handled." Turning to the others he adds, "We'll have to keep an eye out for any others. Now let's get inside."
With that, he walks off toward the main entrance, sword still drawn and in hand.
Trevor puts a hand on the wall, as pain sifts through him, then fades away. He winces and tries to keep a smile: "Augh! That's quite a gift. Thank you Arasmes." He then looks down at his axe. That guy spent too much reading books. That's not a sword!
He blushes at Luka word, then, as Luka turns away, quickly looks up to the sky and has a small smile. The words make him feel better. His dark past he might one day be able to leave behind.
He picks up his javelin and takes the rear, looking out for other pumping monsters.
"Not so sure gift is the right word," Arasmes mutters as he slips into the middle of the party, following Luka into the prison.
DM Screen:
The skies are clear as you circle back to the front facade of Harrowstone.
The prison is a two-story stone building at the center of the grounds. Ivy and moss cling tenaciously to the walls, while above the wooden shingles of the roof are often missing entirely, exposing the wooden rafters of the upper structure to the sky. Here and there, leering stone gargoyles perch on the eaves, once functioning as drainspouts and decorations but now seeming almost to serve a more ominous role of sentinels. Many of these stone decorations have crumbled away and lie in ruined piles on the soggy ground below. Windows in the building's facade are narrow and blocked by grills of rusty iron bars. Stone columns support a slumping wooden balcony over the building's wooden front doors, both of which hang askew and reveal dark glimpses of the chambers within.
DC 15 Knowledge (Engineering) or DC 20 Perception:
Stepping into the (supposedly) haunted halls of Harrowstone, you stand in what was once a wide hall flanked by a pair of waiting rooms, but the foyer to Harrowstone now lies in ruins. With little left to hold up the ceiling, the wooden beams above sag dramatically. The wall to the north contains a large pair of oaken doors.
Aldous follows the group somewhat distracted by his attempts to remove the splatter from his clothing via minor magics. "Hmm. At this rate I'll have an entirely new color for the same outfit by this fall."
Noting Aldous' fussiness, Arasmes shrugs: "If you only end up with a little gore on you, count yourself lucky, Aldous. Remember the professor died here. Likely so will we." Arasmes glances around, squinting, trying to take everything in.
Trevor can't do much but listen to his heartbeat, ringing loudly in his chest. Arasmes' words do little to make him feel reassured...
Luka let's out a deep breath he didn't realize he was holding along with the words to a spell on the tip of his tongue. He looks at the group around him, and nods toward the set of double doors to the north. "So far so good, he grins," as he takes the lead and pushes through the doors.
Evelyn nods back to luka and follows him, bow in hand.
The rotting doors open with a creak to reveal another foyer, this one with walls streaked and stained with mold. The floor below is a thick, gray carpet of fungal growth. Sturdy wooden doors beckon from every wall.
"Aldous, I don't supposed you came across a map of this place, did you?" Luka says looking from door to door.
"Alas, no. Being a prison the layout and planning was not publicly available when it was new and I haven't found anyone who bothered to map the place after the disaster. The city planners might have something on record, but given that my exploration here was in an unofficial capacity I wasn't interested in effectively asking permission before taking a look around. Raises all sorts of flags before you've even taken your first look."
They just can't keep quiet, can't they?!
Nervously, Trevor follows.
"We should've thought of that before coming in here. There must be a map of this place somewhere. Perhaps, after we are done here for the day, we should seek out a map. I fear this place could quickly turn into a maze. I also don't like this game of arbitrarily choosing doors."
"Not to mention we don't really know what it is we are looking for," Luka adds. With that, he steps toward the set of double doors to the east with sword drawn, pushing them just slightly open for a peek.
perception