"I agree with Ramada. The ghosts are the problem at the moment. They can wreak unknown havoc on the town and will cause ill to befall the spirit of the Warden's wife. I for one am not willing to let good souls perish because we are chasing after wealth." Valiard says with conviction.
"How do we go from here to the actual prison?" he asks Drake.
He states a bit confused, "I uh... must have forgotten... new memories and old are swirling together. Our way out? Yes back the way we came, we will use the waypoint. Back up to the inner wall."
Drake types in a few commands and the throne reverts back to its original placement. He states, "We have five minutes to get out, the doors will lock behind us. Let's go, I will be the last one out." Then takes the lead heading to the door and motioning for all to leave.
The meat floor is strange to walk on. You don't see any zerg except for the one floating. The doors sould like they seal after Drake leaves. Soon enough you are all at the waypoint,
A few runes touched on the far wall, Drake throws a red gem into the flames and the waypoint lights fully again red instead of blue. Drake motions for everyone to go through the portal which appears to look out of the wall towards the prison.
Nodding in agreement with Valliard, Børak turns to his mentor, "Do not worry about it Drake." He looks at each the others, knowing they would be in town at least as long as they'd promised the professor's executor. "When we are done with the prison we can return before we leave town and head our own ways."
As the group moved back through the 'meat floor' room, Børak stayed near the front. Watching as Drake fed the gem to the fire, he stepped through the portal into what he believed to be the prison.
Lectrum desperately wants to "stir the pot," I could just slice that thing into tiny pieces before we go but he shows the most self-control of his entire life and continues following Drake.
The group does not disturb the flying thing and stays relatively close too each other nothing happens to you. Drake activates the waypoint and the group appears in the courtyard looking at the prison with the wall at your backs.
Energetically he asks, "So how are we on spells? Shall we venture into the prison? I know a few hours of shopping would make me much more suitable for the mission. But I am ready and willing."
As the group likely talks he moves about and finds the seal covered in dirt and vegetation he puts his hand above it and red crackles of energy come forth from his hand and the seal shoots up 15 feet. He flicks his pointer finger and the tower seems to shed its dirt and vegetation. It now stands glowing and glistening with the metal of its creation. He murmurs to himself, "One of fifteen activated."
"You mean there are in total fifteen of these seals? Then our next task should be finding fourteen more and, I presume, after that we will deal with ghost lady. Visayn ponders and adds "Continuing to explore the prison is, in my opinion, best we can do."
Keeping his bardiche at the ready, Børak moves around the courtyard. Moving close to Lectrum and Valiard, "Is this close to where you were earlier?"
Keeping a keen eye out as Drake opens the seal, raising an eyebrow as his mentor refers to it as 'one of fifteen' he calls back over his shoulder, "Do you think they are all above ground?"
Almost as if coming out of a stupor he looks over at Visayn. He asks, "Do we need to put the ghost lady to rest? Yes we should continue searching the prison."
He replies back to Borak, "I don't know." Then follows the group towards the prison as no one has answered his question.
What was I doing?... his train of thought easily getting derailed. I was activating the seals...
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"There is a lot to do."
"We need to search for items belonging to the five prisoners to aid in fighting them, starting in the property room to the southeast. Examine the runes painted by the necromancers who killed Professor Lorrimor. Consult with Father Grimburrow about the haunts and the ghosts leaving the prison. Consult with the sheriff about the possibility of instituting a curfew, or at least posting a watch to catch anyone acting strangely at night."
"And no, we don't want to put Lady Vesorianna to rest. She is the Warden's wife and has taken over his charge. At this time I have no evidence that she means us anything but assistance. She has said she is taking over her husband's charge in keeping the prisoner's spirits penned up."
"I feel confident that we can search the rest of the upper prison level quickly and efficiently, then proceed to whatever remains below. The sooner we start finding ways to limit the ghosts...the better for the town."
"So that is where I recommend we start."Valiard finished, motioning back toward the prison.
Nikolay listens intently as Valiard lays out the various stages of the plan. Once the herbalist is done, he grimaces and looks away, a sheepish expression on his face. "I... do not think I should talk to the townspeople. I've been in several towns like Ravengro, and it always ends the same way - the ignorant think I'm a necromancer or grave robber and so distrust me, the learned recognize my daemonic blood and so distrust me, and by the time I've unpacked my lab equipment, they've organized a mob to run me out of town." His expression seems to brighten before he continues. "I think I could do some good here at the prison, however. I've done a great deal of research on arcane theory, and I have poor old Lorrimor's notes and journal, which should tell us everything he knew about the Whispering Way. Besides which, my soul-sight could help us pinpoint where the restless spirits of the prisoners lie."
At the mention of the warden's wife, however, the young scientist casts apprehensive glances at Magdali, the only other worshiper of Pharasma he is aware of in the group. "I am unsure - by a particularly strict interpretation of my goddess's teachings, life beyond death is an abomination, and we should not help Vesorianna. However, logically, she is doing more than any of us could do to work against the unquiet spirits of a startling number of murderers, and by helping her, we can aid her in reaching the afterlife. I do not believe there should be any problem, from a theological standpoint."
As the group sets to work at Harrowstone, Nikolay speaks up after a moment of silence. "...Why the Warden, do you think? I mean, why would the Whispering Way agents take the Warden's soul? They could have had their pick of the spirits of killers and cutthroats, but instead, they took the one man perhaps least likely to aid their wicked machinations. It's not logical - our data must be incomplete."
Warden’s House, The first structure on your left is a small brick manor house which is overgrown with thick sheets of gray-green ivy. The roof sags ominously, and the front door hangs askew.
The home appears to be spared damage from the fire of 4661, but time has not been kind to it. Looters have long since pilfered the place of its valuables, so all that remains is a house nearly ready to collapse.
The house is unstable. An attempt to explore it fully
would take 10 minutes—each minute, there is a cumulative
10% chance of the activity within the building triggering
a partial collapse of falling timbers or bricks.
Each time
this occurs, 1d3 of the PCs within the structure or in an
adjacent square must make a DC 15 Ref lex save to avoid
taking 2d6 points of damage from falling debris.
A two-story stone building looms in the center of the prison 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 chambers within.
This 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. Even a casual observation of the roof here is enough to reveal that the balcony above is unstable. If the balcony collapses, this entrance to Harrowstone does not become buried, but does count as difficult terrain.
Streaks of mold stain the walls of this foyer, and the floor below is a thick, gray carpet of fungal growth. Sturdy wooden doors beckon from every wall. The oaken doors on the walls here, unlike all other doors on the upper floors of Harrowstone, are quite sturdy.
The badly-burnt faces of shrieking criminals
rush out of all of the doors before causing each door to
slam violently shut.
He offers in response to the doctor, "Isn't the will of Pharasma to put the dead to rest and send their soul to the afterlife they have earned? So we should do our best to put these ghosts to rest."
On the way towards the prison he asks, "Should we try to get in through one of those windows or through the front door? Valiard and Lecturn would be so kind to lead us in."
"Perhaps knowing the 'why' the Whispering Way took the warden, we would understand. How will we uncover that?" He states thinking aloud.
He states as he slips from his pouch, "I can scout ahead!" He zooms forward at an alarming speed and waits at the entrance to the foyer...
As drake speaks of searching the prison, Børak listens while Valiard shares what they know again. He nods as the man speaks of the warden's wife. It was Børak's opinion that once they had destroyed the prisoners' ghosts that she would see her task as fulfilled, and pass on. About to speak up, Doctor Ramada began sharing about speaking with the folks in town. Børak had not realized the good doctor had such a similar experience with regular folk. But the doctor was right, his experience with soul-sight would be valuable.
As the doctor began theorizing about theology, Børak looks from the prison towards the Wardens house. To his untrained eye it looked like it could fall at any moment. Looking back at the prison itself. Valaird had said they needed to "Examine the runes painted by the necromancers who killed Professor Lorrimor.
Realizing Drake was talking about going into the building Børak's
asks, as he points towards the prison doors, "Valiard you spoke of searching the property room towards the 'southeast' shouldn't the easiest way be through the front doors?"
Raising an eyebrow as the little lizard bolts for the doors, Børak turns to Lecturn, since Drake had called out Valiard and Lecturn to lead the way, he offers. "Lecturn, if you want to take point, I will follow you."
"Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to interfere with her or send her to afterlife. She will certainly be helpful solving mysteries of the prison, that's what I meant."
"Be careful if you enter the house, it may crash on you."
Nikolay barely spares a glance at the crumbling remains of the Warden's residence before shaking his head, keeping a healthy distance from the decrepit building. "That building is critically unstable - I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed yet. If any of the prisoner's items are in there, we would likely be safer knocking it down and sifting through the rubble." The gaunt scientist smirks. "I suspect it will be a simple matter of convincing the termites to let go."
As he enters the remains of Harrowstone, following closely behind Lectrum and Børak, his expression becomes nervous, and he begins to wring his hands together. "I-it's a rather small prison, isn't it? All these tiny rooms and narrow hallways make me feel like I'm already in my grave - and if it's decayed as severely as the Warden's outbuilding, one wrong step could bring the whole place down on us!" Reaching the foyer, however, he gives a relieved smile, glancing around the small space at the sturdy walls. "Actually, this part of the structure is in remarkable condition! We should have little to fear as regards a collapse." He looks sheepishly again at his comrades-in-arms. "I hope you will forgive my lamentable tendency to fret in close quarters. I could never stand being confined in enclosed spaces - it reminds me too much of my childhood." The young tiefling shudders. "Whenever I enraged my father, he would lock me in the root cellar for days on end. In late winter, when the cellar was bare, I sometimes had to catch and eat rats to stave off starvation. I've never been truly comfortable indoors for that very reason. When others are around in such circumstances, I tend to babble - as I'm sure you are all aware by now - since it helps distract me from my fears."
Nikolay moves over to the northeast double doors. "Let's make a start - I'm sure we can solve this little puzzle easily." He reaches for the handle...
...only to be thrown back as the spirits trapped within the building make their presence known. He staggers back, his face pale, and he draws the spiral of Pharasma over his heart as he fumbles for his holy symbol. "...Gray Lady, grant me your protection, though my path is treacherous and the mists of death rush around my feet..."
"Lectrum and I were not able to explore fully. We met Vesorianna in a room to the northwest. We had to stop exploring in the prison clinic when we were attacked by some animated clothing. I think there were potions and other goods there that we had to leave behind as we...withdrew tactically."
"We went left first last time we went in, going right first seems like a good idea." Valiard finished, nodding at Borak and allowing Lectrum to lead the way inside.
Lectrum is happy to lead and takes it as a sign that the others value his leadership. (Sly, maybe less so) He points out the doors that he saw earlier... "That way is the lady ghost, the spiders, the straightjacket, (That was fun!) the other thing..."
Trying to listen for any noises, Børak wishes the doctor would speak less or at least softer. Not feeling it was his place to say anything he bites his tongue waiting as the doctor opens the door. Shocked by the ghosts, he stands his ground. He'd faced ghosts before, and he would not let them keep him from continuing. But he did note how softly the doctor prayed, smiling, that was more like it. Nodding as Valiard recommends they go right, Børak tries to stay shoulder to shoulder with the dragonkin.
the badly-burnt faces of shrieking criminals rush out of all of the doors before causing each door to slam violently.
Doctor's rant seem to exhaust Visayn who interrupts him "Can we take a look of that straightjacket if we have enough time? I'm very curious of such thing. When it comes to which direction we should take, I don't have strong opinion, so you two can take the lead and I will follow." Despite spookily shrieking faces, Visayn stubbornly marches forward to right.
As Valiard and Lectrum discuss where they'd been previously Børak moves to the door in the lower south eastern door in the room. Listening carefully at the door, he searches it for any traps, he then attempts to open it.
opening the door expect to see the badly-burnt faces of shrieking criminals rush out of the door but does not. You find a hallway with a table half way through the 30 foot long room. Several chairs are about the table. Broken plates and crushed tankards rest upon the table.
The metal door to this room remains quite sound In addition, it is
locked.
door in the east wall.
Treasure: Although much of the remaining property
is junk, a few items remain that may be of interest,
including a set of masterwork thieves’ tools, a bronze war
medallion from the Shining Crusade (worth 40 gp), an
unframed Taldan painting of Stavian I (worth 100 gp),
a set of a noblewoman’s silver hair clips (worth 35 gp),
a masterwork punching dagger, a pouch containing a
dozen masterwork shurikens, a masterwork silver war
razor, and a wand of lesser restoration (12 charges).
Lectrum is fine with this direction. If the door cannot be unlocked, a magical, adamantine horsechopper will make short work of it.
Visayn grabs lockpick and quickly unlocks the door.
"Easy work, but nothing interesting here." he remarks while boredly looking around
Although much of the remaining property is junk, a few items remain that may be of interest, including a set of masterwork thieves’ tools, a bronze war medallion, an unframed Taldan painting of Stavian I, a set of a noblewoman’s silver hair clips, a masterwork punching dagger, a pouch containing a dozen masterwork shurikens, and a masterwork silver war
razor.
door in the east wall.
Moving down the hallway and past the metal door Børak moves into the corner room. Moving around the room, Børak keeps a keen eye out, lifting the punching dagger, "These weapons are well made, anyone need a dagger or a war hammer?"
As he sets the hammer back down, he notices the secret doo in the east wall. Moving close to the door he inspects it for traps, asking Visayn, "Hey Visayn, do you think you can open this?"
At Børak's question, Nikolay shakes his head. "I am afraid, my friend, that I am no warrior as you and some of our companions are. Both of these weapons are far outside my area of expertise." He glances down at the mace-like instrument at his hip. "Technically, this isn't even a weapon. Its official name is the Ramada-West Enhanced Medicinal Dispersal Device. I invented it alongside one of my fellow students as an alternative to the syringe for patients with psychological aversions to needles, but when I tested it on a lab rat, the rat exploded."
As he enters the room, he makes his way over to the north wall, looking along it for any seams indicating a hidden door, though he finds none. He steps back, clearing his throat. "Well, it worked last time. *ahem* It would certainly be convenient if we were to find a hidden passage. Such a shame that we are unable to find it. I suppose I may as well lean against this completely unremarkable brick..."
When this fails to produce results, he scowls at the wall, pushing experimentally on a few more bricks before giving the whole structure a solid kick. As Børak points out the secret door in the eastern wall, however, he clears his throat again and moves in that direction, a distinctly sheepish look on his face. "I..." He sighs. "...Okay, I don't have any excuses. That was pathetic on my part." From the depths of his magic pouch emerge the set of lockpicks again, and he kneels down to examine the secret door. "Look, I'm not completely useless, and I'll prove it!"
Another sigh. "...Okay, bad example. Give me another chance..."
Valiard moves around the room, his fingers trailing across the assorted bits and bobs, eyes unfocused with thought.
"Well, it worked last time. *ahem* It would certainly be convenient if we were to find a hidden passage. Such a shame that we are unable to find it. I suppose I may as well lean against this completely unremarkable brick..."
"I..." He sighs. "...Okay, I don't have any excuses. That was pathetic on my part." From the depths of his magic pouch emerge the set of lockpicks again, and he kneels down to examine the secret door. "Look, I'm not completely useless, and I'll prove it!"
Another sigh. "...Okay, bad example. Give me another chance..."
Valiard's eyes snap back to the items on the table.
"Hey, perhaps something here is important to one of the ghosts? I wish there was a way to know..." Valiard takes the time to inspect each item.
"Can someone else look at these too, just to make sure I don't miss anything?" Valiard asks, turning the medallion over in his hands.
All five of the items stored here are tagged with information as to their former owners.
Bloodstained Handaxe: This +1 handaxe was the Lopper’s favorite murder weapon. No amount of cleaning can remove the bloodstains on the blade or handle.
Collection of Holy Symbols: These holy symbols were used by Father Charlatan, who would select one from the collection that would match the faith of his victims as proof of his good intentions. There are a dozen holy symbols on fine silver chains—the collection as a whole is worth 300 gp. The exact holy symbols in the collection are Pharasma, Cayden, Neythes, Irori, Sarenrae, among others. The silver chains that attach the holy symbols cannot be untangled, and the 12 symbols themselves are
stuck together.
Moldy Spellbook: The covers and pages of this thick, leather-bound spellbook have become caked with mold over the years, but some of the contents remain legible. This book once belonged to Professor Hean Feramin, the man who would eventually achieve fame not through academia but through murder. Known in his final days as the Splatter Man.
Smith’s Hammer: This masterwork smith’s hammer grants a +2 competence bonus on all Craft (armorsmith, blacksmith, and weaponsmith) checks. If used in battle, the hammer functions as a masterwork light hammer.
Tarnished Silver Flute: This 300 gp masterwork flute was once owned by the man known only as the Piper of Illmarsh.
Chuckling at the good doctors responce, Børak looked at some of the others as he set the gear back down. As Ramada opened the secret storage area, Børak turns to Valiard, pointing into the vault, "If not those maybe some of these tagged things are of importance."
Picking up first the hand axe, reading the tag, "This one belongs to the Lopper" Then lifting the hammer, "This one says 'smiths hammer." Setting the hammer down he asks, "How do we know if any of these are the items in question?"
Nikolay follows his friend into the room, but after barely a glance at the cramped confines and crumbling walls, he rushes back out into the more spacious other room, grabbing what the scientist perceives to be the most important item - the book - as he goes.
"How do we know if any of these are the items in question?"
At Børak's words, he glances back at the room before returning to leafing through the spellbook. "If we brought them back to Vesorianna, she would know, I suppose. As all four of the other articles are linked to specific prisoners we know of, I would be willing to bet that the hammer you hold belonged to the Mosswater Marauder."
As he continues to page through the book, he blanches as he sees "Nikolay Miron Ramada" in blood along one of the margins, but after a minute more of reading, a faint smile begins to spread across his face. "Actually, some of these formulas are... genius, to be perfectly frank. Obviously, as they are applied here, they are quite dangerous, but I remember reading about a Sincomakti research vessel - the Spirit of Inquiry, I think it was called - that recorded refined measurements for the values Feramin used in his research here. I'll have to check the Bhaltvrest Hall Archives when I'm back in Rozenport, but just think - this knowledge could do so much good!"
The Smith's hammer should have a tag that reads, "Mosswater Marauder".
"It seems we have made progress here! I agree that Vesorianna will know a lot of these things." he says while grabbing the flute "This used to belong to Piper of Ilmarsh. Do we recall anything of importance about him?"
Lectrum is only holding the ghost-touch axe. "How does this even work?" He twirls it and swings it at nothing.
Believing the good doctor to be right about having the ghost Vesorianna examine the tagged items, Børak tries not to think about being around if the doctor starts messing around with formula's.
Resting his bardiche against the wall he takes off his pack, opening the mouth. "Let's put the tagged items from the vault in my pack for safe keeping." As he leaves the pack open, he fetches the other few items remain that may be of interest, stuffing them in the pack as well.
Once all the items are safely stored, either in his pack or elsewhere, he reshoulders his pack and picks up his bardiche, asking. "So on to Vesorianna?" He looks towards Lectrum, then Valiard, "So which way?"
With the items stowed the group looks towards Lectrum and Valiard.
He steps up to Lecturn stating, "The sharp end is swung into an enemy..."
He looks at the Dragonkin with a Cheshire smile on his face and adds, "I could go on, you hold it there..."
"Let's put the tagged items from the vault in my pack for safe keeping."
When Børak opens the mouth of his pack, Nikolay initially holds back, casting suspicious looks at Børak as he holds the Splatter Man's spellbook close, but at a glare from Drake, he grudgingly drops the grimoire into the open pack.
As the group begins to leave the room, Nikolay spares one final glance into the evidence room vault, ensuring the group hasn't missed anything, when the glimmer of sunlight on brass catches his eye. The young scientist begins to dig through a pile of rubble before extracting a startlingly undamaged pair of brass-rimmed spectacles. In his examination of the lenses, he fails to notice the strange factor regarding the discovery - namely that there was no sunlight to gleam off the glasses' frame.
After a moment of investigation, he tentatively perches them on the end of his nose, only to gasp in astonishment and wonder as their strange properties become clear. "These lenses have some truly fascinating properties - I can see everything! They must operate through some kind of refraction of visible-wavelength soul energy. Back at Sincomakti, Professor Salvar of the Optics group was actually working on something similar - right up until he splashed the acid in his eyes and started ranting about impossible colors, that is." The young scientist looks Lectrum up and down. "Lectrum, my friend, your soul is so full of life! All around you, sickness lies in wait - simple colds, harmless to most, but likely fatal to me without the influence of the Teratogenesis B compound, yet against your health they prove no more substantial than mist." He gives a nightmarish grin and lets out a short burst of laughter that, considering the context, cannot help but sound sinister. "I suspect your soul would have been much sought after by the fiends which spawned my bloodline, but I assure you, you have nothing to fear from me in that regard."
Not far from the rubble dug by Nikolay, Visayn is delighted to find magical sandals, which he immediately tries to see if they fit. "These sandals feel so great and greatest thing about them is that they enable me to react quicker to ambushing enemies." he says with confident smile
Chuckling at Drake's comment to Lectrum, Børak resisted the urge to make any more comments. Shifting his bardiche in hand, he asks the Dragonkin hoping to save his new friend from his mentor's sarcastic humor, "Which direction to the ghost Lectrum?"
As Borak picked up the items on the table, a small pair of violet tinted glasses fell out of the thieves tools and onto the table. "Curious glasses..." he mutters, then picked them up. Interesting...if nothing else they may be worth a laugh as I imitate Ramada!
Valiard smiled slightly at the antics of the group, then motioned them to follow him.
"I am glad that we found these items during the day. I cannot but expect that using them...or even keeping them in our keeping will not encourage supernatural activity. I can't wait to use them...then get rid of them." He says as he lead them to the main entryway, then briefly north through the doors, then west down a long corridor, until he reached Vesorianna's abode.
"Lady Vesorianna, my companions and I have been successful in finding the possessions of the ghosts that you spoke of. Can we have your aid in using the items against them as we discussed?" he asked as he entered the workshop.
the haunt of the doors happens once per minute.
She happily look upon your group and asks, "Please bring the items before me."
He steps up to Lecturn stating, "The sharp end is swung into an enemy..."
He looks at the Dragonkin with a Cheshire smile on his face and adds, "I could go on, you hold it there..."
Lectrum, a little flustered, but incapable of blushing, stammers, "I know, but I meant... it's an axe... how would it work against a spirit that isn't really a whole body. It's noncorporal, you know?"
"Sure, through that way and then...well, just follow Valiard, I guess." He walks just behind Valiard waiting almost eagerly for a ghost to show up, other than Vesorianna.
To Ramada, "Uhhh...fiends?"
Chuckling at Lectrum's comment Børak Follows Valiard through the prison. Make a mental note of the direction they are heading, hoping to keep his bearings. As they enter the workshop, he looks around the room, trying not to look surprised as the ghost of the warden manifests and asks for the items. Nodding he approaches, leaning his bardiche against one of the work tables. Removing his pack he rests it on the table and removes the items they found in the vault, placing them on the table.
She walks over to the table and slowly hovers her hands over the items. Once done she turns and happily states, "Yes I am sure these are the items needed. Each of you will need to claim one and wield it against its previous owner to put them down again."
He asks wondering out loud, "I am confused why do you think you should use it to attack ghosts or incorpreal spirits?"
"And how would one use the pile of holy symbols? Throw them at the ghost...?" Valiard asked, confused.