After gathering all of the items the goblins took and reviving the dog you all head back through the woods to Farmer Mosser's.
Upon reaching his farmstead you relay what happened with the goblins and how you were a bit too late to save both dogs but did manage to thwart the goblins and bring little Fido home. Farmer Mosser understands and thanks you profusely for saving his pup and the missing items from town. As a token on his gratitude he gives you give you 2 potions of cure light wounds and his wife brought out a basket of baked treats and breads for you to take as well.
Heading north back into town with the items the goblins stole you make way to the Ravengro town jail, and are met at the door by Deputy Leromar and Deputy Riff. One of you speaks up and asks to see Sheriff Caeller. A few moments later Riff comes back out and leads you all into a back office in the jail. Sheriff Benjan Caeller is a tall and think man in his late 40's, his skin is weathered and almost looks like leather, most likely from years in the sun. His stubble on his face and neck is a salt and pepper color.
Afternoon folks, I don't beleive that we have had the opportunity to be introduced yet. I am Sheriff Benjan Caeller and you already met 2 of my deputies, Riff and Leromar. I see you are carrying in quite of haul of goods. He pauses and looks at you suspiciously,Where'd ya get all that?
|
"So pleased to meet you Sheriff Caeller! I am Niralzi Anut, traveler and friend of the late Professor's. My friends and I saw a posting about missing dogs in town and thought we might be able to lend a hand. Farmer Mosser graciously pointed us in the right direction. Much to our surprise, we found a band of goblins with the dogs and what appears to be items stolen from around town! After returning the dog to Farmer Mosser, we came directly to you to ensure that the town received what was stolen." Niralzi humbly explains to the Sheriff.
Seeing that Niralzi has it well in hand, Sisu watches the sherriff to see if he shares the untrusting attitude of the town towards strangers.
"Knowing that anything she says is likely to complicate matters, Rahela just stands quietly"
Vralk, however, does not
"Yeah, we brought BACK the shineys. Which seemed like a really silly idea to me!! Can we keep some of them? Some of them should be OUR shineys as a reward!!!"
The sheriff sits there listening to Niralzi tell your story about the goblins. "Ah, well I think your story makes sense. One of my deputies did say he saw some off looking tracks a few days back. Thank you for bringing in these items. The towns folk will be happy to have their stuff back. I'll make sure to let them know who fought off the goblins and found their belongings."
He and his deputies take all the items you brought in and show you the way out. As you make your way back outside you notice the sun is setting and the shops along the edge of the town square are starting to close up.
"Yeah, food sounds good. Maybe folk will start to open up to us some more. I'm glad we found those goblins and stopped them. Poor animals."
"You know, I've really been having a craving for those wolfballs, which is such a ridiculous statement I can't believe he'd name such a delicious item that," Pointing to the direction of the Inn, "to the Inn! That old prison'll be there tomorrow!"
After leaving the town jail and the sheriff your party heads to "The Outward Inn" which is just across the town square. This small bed and breakfast is run by a beautiful light haired human woman names Sarianna Vai. She introduces herself and leads you down to the basement tavern where a few locals are already enjoying a drink after a long day in the fields. They look up from their drinks and smile at you as you enter the room.
She hand sets a few menus down at the table and says that she will bring a round of mead out. Looking at the menu it isn't as fun as the "Laughing Demon's" but still looks good. With items like beef and root stew, lamb legs, and whats marked as a favorite is listed as sausage stuffed bread.
Enjoying the chance to sit after a long day, Sisu orders some stew and a water, and leafs through her notebook while carefully listening to the locals to see if she overhears any conversations of interest.
"Well, I've been told by my mother to ALWAYS take the favourite so I'll take the sausage stuffed bread, please"
After eating (and giving Vralk FAR more than he really needs) Rahela will try and get into conversations with the locals. No huge agenda here, she is genuinely curious about them and their lives.
If allowed, I'd take 10 on diplomacy for a 22.
If not
"Indeed those are wise words your mother gave you Rahela."
She laughed and also ordered the sausage stuffed bread and a round of ales. After eating... rather voraciously, she scanned the crowd looking for any of the younger workmanlike bunch.... if there were any of course. Barring that any folk telling tales whe would congregate torwards. She always felt awkward around couples... or even the older folk back home.
After enjoying some good food and drink you all visit with the locals. Telling tales of adventures and stories, as well as getting to know each other. AT this point you haven't heard anything of note regarding Harrowstone, things you do hear you have already gathered- the executioner still guards the balacony and on some days and nights his scythe seems to be carried by an invisible spirit, or that the ghost of the warden's wife can be heard near sundown wailing and sobbing from somewhere within.
During your visiting a few local musicians come in and start to perform. As they start to play one of the locals turns to your group and says, "Not sure if you know this but Sarianna was once a great singer years ago in Caliohas and sometimes if this place gets going we can convince her to start to sing! its really something to hear!
He turns to Niralzi, "Say, weren't you the one the other night at the Laughing Deamon playing music? You were really good, do you think you could play again? Maybe you can get Sarianna to start to sign. He looks so excited at the idea of getting her to sing.
Looking up from his plate of food, a roasted duck with onion soup as he watches the performance, "You know, she is really pretty good!" Bobbing his head along to the beat.
"I must say, if it werent for the horrific happenings here in this little town, this place isn't so bad,"
Sariana joins in and her beautiful voice fills the basement tavern and at the sound of her voice all conversation stops. While she is singing the door at the top of the stairs opens and a local farmer enters and sits at a table to listen.
Entranced by Sariana's beautiful singing and Niralzi's recorder playing you all missed 2 stirges fly into the tavern when the door at the top of the stairs opened. They flew over towards your table.
Red Stirge vs Rahela
Rahela takes 1 CON damage as the stirge is attached to your arm.
Blue Stirge vs Chellian
Chellian also takes 1 CON damage and the stirge is attached to your arm as well.
Round One-Bold may go
Stirges
Chellian
Sisu
Malakos
Rahela
Niralzi
|
|
Aghast at the appearance of the stirges, Niralzi steps back to draw out her rapier. Her recorder tune promptly changes song as she begins to
"Arrggghhhh. Get it off me!!"
Rahela jumps to her feet and tries to grab the stirge
Surprisingly, not too effectively :-(
Slightly drunk from the beer and music, the vicious stirge attack takes Malakos completely by surprise, fumbling at his component pouch, he'll summon a force missile to blast on the Stirge's.
"AHHHHHH what is that horrific creature, just hold still we'll get it off!"
Though being attacked by the overgrown mosquito was painful and annoying she drew her dagger and frowned gauging Rahela's pannicked movement before stabbing at the stirge on her.
Seeing as everyone including Chellian is focused on Rahela, Sisu decides to try and assist with the stirge on Chellian's arm. Not wanting to alarm anyone by panicking, or by poking a spear in the general direction of her friends, she calmly moves over to Chellian and grabs at the stirge.
As quickly as it started you were able to kill the stirges. The locals were confused as to what was happening for only a moment.
Sisu sits back down to think about the presence of stirges while she wipes the blood off her hand.
"OK. We learned in our research that there were five criminals put in Harrowstone right before the fire. That children's song seemed to mention five different killers, and one of the lines included the words 'feed the stirge'" She looks up at the group "I think maybe we should research those five criminals as it seems they might be an important part of what happened, and is happening"
Breathing a bit heavily after that short fight, sweating from the beer he had been drinking, "That was so odd," leaning against the table to keep from getting dizzy "Where did they come from, did someone see anyone release them"
"That is INCREDIBLY strange. Those stirges were almost dancing to the music. They were DEFINITELY moving in time with it. Something supernatural? They have been trained? Can one train stirges? Strange."
She scowled as she cut a small peice of her cloak off using it to wrap around her arm where the stupid bug had bit her. Growing up near the swampier parts of Ustalav she was passing familiar with stirges, but was still disgusted by them.
"It would take someone of some skill to train them i think since they are bugs. I guess some sort of humanoid monster simular to them might."
She began as she started to shutter. From the way her gaze was sort of empty it was clear she wasnt staring at anything in the room but more memories of the past. That ettercap that almost killed her seemed to control several large fat spiders... so maybe there was something that could 'train' stirges. That was a disturbing thought.
"Are stirges a problem around here? We could ask I guess."
Some of the other patrons tell you that they have seen stirges around town, but only recently.
After dinner you head back to Kendra's for the evening. There you can rest for the night.
The following morning you ask Kendra if she knows anything about the Five Prisoners. Unfortunately she doesn't know much of anything other than that they were still imprisoned when the great fire happened and that they were some of the most notorious and dangerous criminals in Ustalav.
After having breakfast, Sisu addresses the group. "I think before we head back into Harrowstone, we should research these 'Five Prisoners'. It seems like the Temple might be a good place to start for that."
Stuffing a couple of leftover sausages from breakfast into one of his pockets and then pushing himself up from the table, nodding to Sisu "the temple sounds like a good plan, hopefully we don't get attacked by stirges or some other crazy creature today,"
"I am ALWAYS going to agree with spending more time at my temple :-)"
After leaving Kendra's you follow the familiar path back to the Temple. Along the way you pass the turn off that heads towards the Harrowstone memorial and you see a large group of people heading that way. Curiosity getting the better of you you head down the path to see what the commotion is.
Walking up you start to hear people talking.
"Didn't this just happen a few nights ago?"
"Yeah, I think so but this morning they found the letter E splattered in blood...and blood was splattered all around and on the statue, just like last time."
"Strange things have been happenin' here lately.."
Walking up to the monument you see Sheriff Caeller investigating.
"Ah good morning! it looks like the memorial was desecrated once again last night. The only difference is there is a different letter written across the plaque." pausing to scratch his chin and sigh, "It took my deputies almost a whole day to clean up all the blood last time. They aren't looking forward to doing it again."
Looking up at the monument and the blood, "That's a lot of blood, where is this villain getting all this blood from?" Malakos asks trailing off as he wonders what they are spelling, "I'll be honest, I don't remember what the first letter was, Sisu did you happen to write it down as a clue?"
Stepping away and pulling a sausage out to chew on as he thinks, muttering to himself,"there haven't been a large uptick in murders that we've heard about which means. . .hmm yes it means this might not be human blood, it might be animal blood,"
Beaming, Malakos walks over to the sheriff, "Sheriff, has there been any farmers reporting missing livestock in the past few days? I think someone might be killing animals to gather this much blood!"
"V ... E ... It's got to be spelling something. One of the names on the memorial was 'Vesorianna'. We might need to look into who that was while we research the five criminals."
"I just hope its animals that are being killed and not people"
Would a heal check be able to identify the source of the blood?
From Rahela's check and the sheriff's agreement you are able to deduce that it is animal blood. probably of a small animal like a rat, or a small cat.
"I'm gonna have one of my deputies out here tonight to stand watch. Hopefully they'll be able to see or catch however is doing this. We've had no leads on this unfortunately."
Turning towards Sisu he pauses and thinks, "hmm Vesorianna, hmm well other than seeing it on the memorial here I don't really recognize that name. I'm not one to keep up on town history and all that."
Scratching his head, frowning, "Hm no I don't think that's right, there's no way all this blood came from a rat or a small cat. . ."
Turning to the group, "Maybe we should ask around the farmers if any of them have noticed livestock missing," Continuing, "We could even split up, half of us check out the lead for this name Vesorianna and half of us talk to the local farmers nearby?"
"I'll head straight to the temple and start researching while you guys ask about the missing livestock"
At the Temple you are greeted warmly and taken back to the records room without any wait. At this point the acolytes expect you and had fresh candles in the room ready for you.
Five Prisoners:
verrun 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 f lew 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.
mournful dirge on his f lute. 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.
I'd try and aid Sisu. I think she is the best of all of us at this