Cole frowns. He points out the obvious…at least to him.
”Or she was the one who started the fire. Again, speculation is useless at this point until we learn more.”
Sterling shrugs, possibly just resettling his pack on his shoulders.
"Hm, Not everyone likes to start fires you know. Though Some of us do like to cook the sausages over them."
The hood hides it, but Cole is fairly certain he can hear the tiny smirk in Sterling's voice.
Sterling follows the rest to the statue, dutifully walking around it, shaking his hooded head at the size of the thing.
"Was it 'life-sized', or 'EGO-sized'?" he asks no one in particular.
Seeing everyone heading off to the townhall the big man sighs. "Ay think the terrors of Harrowstone may pale in comparison to spending hours in the records office." he mutters. However in spite of his words, he happily, and, joins in the hunt.
Kenzo will journey with the others to try and find out more about the prison.
"Perhaps we shouldn't assume the worst about the wife without just cause." Says the *only* female in the group.
"No one is assuming anything yet. It couldn't be lunch, at least not something she did regularly because it was noted the wife's presence was strange."
Zek nods to Zyblina.
"Let us get on with it." little dragon enshrouds himself again in the cloak and keeps next to the cleric. Even if he is noticed, he might be maybe considered a helper to the priest.
Ravengro - Shanda's Manse to the Memorial Statue
Teo turns to Sergei, "Before you leave, the Lopper called you by some odd name at the end of that fight, what was it Disilnya? Is that another of your, uh, personalities? How did he even know to say that?"
Ravengro - Town Hall
Town Hall is the largest building in the town square. Sitting on the Gazebo in the center of town square is a dog. He observes your comings with great interest wagging his tail in response to your presence.
Those few townsfolk present in the square either don't look at you or look at you with mistrust. Standing on the front porch of the town square building is a pudgy fellow, shading towards just past middle age. The way he carries himself though shows that he was once fit and likely a warrior of some sort. His smile is present but not warm, "Greetings adventurers, I am am Councilor Vashian Hearthmount.
The building is made of sturdy local wood, but aesthetically is quite plain. Only its size stands out as it is on of the larger structures in a town with only a half dozen similarly situated buildings.
Shanda told me you would arrive in the morning". He chuckles, "Around here we consider the morning a number of hours ago, but it's alright. Come on in and i'll show you what you face".
You follow him into what looks to be more of a hall than a "Town Hall", the first floor is one bog room with several window on each side. Many chairs and tables are arranged on one side of the room. There is a podium at the back of the room and a door to the right of the podium in the back. From the outside this would have appeared to be a two story building, instead with its vaulted ceiling it has only a single floor, at least on the ground level. He leads you through there where a small hall reveals a few more doors.
Turning left and then right at the end of the short hallway he opens a door that leads down a narrow winding staircase. The staircase is stone, the walls brick. It is damp and stuffy down here, not ideal for document storage. At the bottom you find the object of your quest and a daunting task. This underground space has many, many, many wooden crates.
The looks on your faces leads to yet another chuckle from the Councilman, "Not to worry, I isolated the crates from that contained records from the time of the incident in the middle of the room. If what you are looking for is here, you'll find it there". He points to about fifty such crates. "From the few things I did pull, just out of curiosity, I found crop and weather reports. But I did find a short report discussing that much of the paperwork from the prison was transferred here. Good luck. You've two days. I'll come by later to lock up".
You all get to work organizing trying to pull out as many crates that aren't relevant as possible to get to what might help you solve the riddle of the Eight.
Zek looks to pull lists of names first with Bastion's assistance guided magically by Zy -
By lunchtime, Zek has the list! The eight are listed as:
(i) the Lopper, birth name - Vance Dilisnya,
(ii) Piper of Illmarsh, birth name - Unknown,
(iii) Father Charlatan, real name - Sefick d’Honaire,
(iv) the Mosswater Marauder, real name - Ispin Hiregaard,
(v) Splatter Man, real name - Hean Boritsi,
(vi) Bonegnasher, real name - Tristan Mordenheim,
(vii) The Hanged Man, real name - Kristoff Godefrey, and
(viii) Soulcatcher, real name - Lucy Drakov.
- The Lopper
- Piper of Illmarsh
Teo turns to Sergei, "Before you leave, the Lopper called you by some odd name at the end of that fight, what was it Disilnya? Is that another of your, uh, personalities? How did he even know to say that?"
Sergei was quiet and still, clearly taken off guard by the question. After a moment, he sighed. "I suppose there is little point in keeping up the pretense of normality at this point."
"You have the right of it. I do not know how this Lopper knew of Dilisnya. It is possible the wraith could see the other spirits that inhabit this vessel, and somehow recognized him. He is being... tight lipped about it. The women are chastising him, but he is not the sort to give up anything without receiving something significant in return. I'm afraid I have little to offer in the way of explanation."
Zek immediately latches on the last name, it sounds like something Pharasma would have a say in.
because 'soulcatcher' obviously
Sterling's attention is caught by one name. "Father Charlatan". He snorts derisively.
Ravengro - Town Hall
The Party begins digging into the paperwork.
After four hours or so, Zek makes a breakthrough and discovers a prison roll call, with eight prisoners specifically listed as on the “watch” list.
Zek finds an interest in the name Soulcatcher, with Kenzo and Bastion’s aid, he is getting oh so close to making a breakthrough. [24!]
Cole starts looking into Father Charlatan, but is having little luck [14], he switches gears and begins to delve into the Piper of Ilmarsh with the assistance of Sergei and Kenzo, he makes a breakthrough! [28!]
Sterling is curious about the Father but he focuses instead on the Mosswater Maurader, with Kenzo’s help, he is oh so close to a breakthrough… [23]
Councilor Vashian Hearthmount arrives and heads down the stairs waving his hand at all of the dust swirling around, ”Hopefully, you have made great progress, I am sure as students and friends of Van Richten you have. The day though draws to a close so I will have to ask you to vacate until tomorrow!”
Sterling looks up from the record he is currently holding, and seems momentarily surprised at the time.
The priest stands up, and nods his head to the councilor.
"There is a wealth of information here. The only issue is putting the pieces together. Thank you for your patience."
Sterling gives Councilor Hearthmount a small spiral of blessing, and starts picking up the papers where he was sitting. Habit from much time in the Church's library no doubt.
Bastion stands, stretches, and directs a look that, were the papers human, would make them tremble.
"Ah need to see the sun, feel the fresh air on mah skin and to taste an ale and a pie."
Cole Grunts softly and heads back, leaving everything in his work space as it is.
Zyblina was not one who was well versed in research or study, unless it somehow related to her goddess. Thus she instead focuses on granting a bit of divine aid to each of her companions who do decide to hit the books.
She casts an additional blessing on the priest of Pharasma, granting him extra insight into his research.
Ravengro - Town Hall
As the night wears on, Zek is getting fatigued. He believes he is so close to finding the right set of pages in the box he is currently looking through, but what he is looking for just isn't tuning up. This is after all, his second day/night in a row focusing on this tedious task.
Zy lays a hand on his shoulder and it suffuses him with the warmth of the Dawnflower, suddenly his mind opens up and he remembers where he saw the name, the real name of this villain! He rifles through an earlier box he put down and he finds the right file!
It is not clear what happened, but in an expedition to with a team of Knights to Adorak she was possessed by a spirit and renamed herself Lucy Drakov. Thereafter, her behavior became erratic and she relocated from Lastwall to Ustalav.
While living in Ustalav, she crafted a jar that allowed her to aid in the housing of souls, her claim was that she could heal the sick with no risk of death with their soul housed in the jar.
Soon enough her claims were refuted by family members that claimed that she replaced loved ones with the souls of different spirits or creatures she summoned! What she did with the souls she stole was not explained in the documentation though there was intent to unlock her secrets through enhanced interrogation after her trial and conviction.
It appears that the fires stopped any further query into the matter.
As Zek relays what he has discovered, the others can hear Sterling's teeth grinding. Loudly.
-_-_-_-
That evening, Sterling eats whatever is offered (Gratefully if from the good Doctor's Daughter and friends) but fishes out a brick of dried travel rations if nothing else. He then goes off for a silent moment of evening prayers and crashes. Hard.
Teo and Cole know better than to try and wake him when like this. The skinny cleric can go for days on little rest if needed. But his mind-set is one of 'Get sleep while you can when safe', and he fulfills this thought wholeheartedly when the opportunity present itself.
Ravengro
Bastion, Alain and Kenzo spend some time at the local Tavern/Restaurant the Laughing Demon where Zokar Elkarid greets them serving up a few Vampire stakes.
Alain barely speaks, but then he barely speaks so this is not unusual!
The crowd has a muted response to your presence despite how friendly Zokar has been.
Town Hall - the Next Day
The Party wakes up a bit earlier the next day to give more time to proceed with the research.
As you first arrive, Sterling sets to work on the Mosswater Marauder again with Bastion's aid , he finds what he's looking for!
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 half-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.
Other names don't really hold any special interest to Zek'Karis so he simply takes the next one on the list. This splatter man could be gruesome killer, some kind of twisted artist? Or someone who pushed people from cliffs?
He focuses on references for that man for the whole day.
Kenzo tries to get the people around him in the inn to talk to him, but fails pretty spectacularly in finding anything interesting out.
Sterling slaps the stack of papers he is currently holding on the table with a satisfying sound.
"The 'Mosswater Marauder'. A thoroughly unpleasant fellow. But very dedicated to what he set his mind to."
He slides the papers to the others, and returns to look for information about 'Father Charlatan', spending the rest of the day on that topic.
A certain Cleric may also be 'very dedicated' to something once he sets his mind to it,...
Bastion does his best to get onto the good side of the villagers. He is big, and he knows that scares people. But when he wants to, he can also be quite the charmer.
Tonight however... the day of reading documents seems to have gotten to him. His throat is dry and dust clogged, his eyes feel weak, and his temper is short. Who would want to be friends with someone like that?
Kenzo looks at Bastion as another group of villagers inexplicably moves as far from the pair as they can. "Well, it doesn't seem like the villagers here are all that talkative."
Kenzo looks at Bastion as another group of villagers inexplicably moves as far from the pair as they can. "Well, it doesn't seem like the villagers here are all that talkative."
"I'll see what I can do tomorrow. I'm a much better diplomat than I am a researcher." Sergei said with a wry smile.
Ravengro - Town Hall
Kenzo takes a flier at the Hanged Man with Cole's assistance... but he simply cannot pull enough together to find what he needs to delve into the man's past.
Teo arrives a bit late and spends her time looking at Bonegnasher.
Quartrefaux Archives in Caliphas. Yet an accidental association with a succubus twisted and warped his study, turning it into an obsession. Boritsi became obsessed with the power of a name and how he could use
it to terrify and control.
Soon enough, his reputation was ruined, he’d lost his tenure, and he’d developed an uncontrollable obsession with an imaginary link between a person’s name and what happens to that name when the person dies. Every few days, he would secretly arrange for his victim to find a letter from her name written in blood, perhaps smeared on a wall or spelled out with carefully arranged entrails. Once he had spelled his victim’s name, he would at last come for her, killing her in a gory mess using a complex trap or series of rigged events meant to look like an accident.
A genius level intellect, his Wizardly powers made him a difficult villain to apprehend even when it was realized that he was the culprit.
He was not kept in the maximum security dungeon as he was not a murderer. His subtlety and Diplomacy almost got him a false release but as he was a compulsive liar who could not help but be deceitful, the Warden placed a muzzle on him so he could not speak with the Guards any longer. His ability to weave a complex believable story was perhaps his greatest power.
His remake though was a failure that drove him mad. In his arrogance he transferred his psyche, or tried to transfer his psyche is a more appropriate explanation to a new body. The body though could not truly sustain human life it seemed and his giant golem like form had to be taken down with the assistance of a full cadre of Knights after a mass-murderous killing spree. Thereafter, those Knights all died from some sort of virulent plague, as if all who came into contact with him decayed. Quite the frightening effect, and locals sought to simply burn him and his new form alive, if what he could be called was alive!
Still, the law was clear that he be placed into custody even though he was no longer quite human. His new huge form was locked in the dungeon of Harrowstone as his colleagues sought to find a way to return his mind to his original body which he at least had the foresight to preserve. They believed that with a return to his body his sanity would return and he could be rehabilitated.
Based on what you are reading, he was imprisoned on collapsed side of the dungeons so that body is likely irretrievable...
It is not clear where his original body was being stored but it was believed to be at the University of Lepidstadt.
"Well, that's just about everybody discovered. What an absolutely awful, deplorable, group of people." Zy says, as her friends share the info they've uncovered.
"Well, that's just about everybody discovered. What an absolutely awful, deplorable, group of people." Zy says, as her friends share the info they've uncovered.
Sterling 'Hmphs'.
"Yes. Quite the dinner party guest list they must have made. Almost sorry I missed it."
Ravengro - Town Hall
Cole manages to dig up just enough to put the puzzle together as Councilor Hearthmount is coming down the stairs.
Whatever happened on that journey went terribly wrong and Kristoff returned to Ardis hunting and killing mortals instead of the undead. He was eventually captured having utilized an alias, Simon Belmont, to create an entirely new identity as a decadent nobleman to hide during the day. Befitting his crimes he was to be sentenced to death by hanging from the neck until he died!
At his execution, he survived the hanging and with a hidden dagger, managed to cut himself down and flee before a horrified crowd, though he suffered a grievous wound wherein his neck was twisted and his spine bulged.
He continued a murderous rampage fleeing away from Ardis and was eventually caught by clergy of the Church of Pharasma who suspected that he was able to survive the hanging due to being turned into some sort of partially undead creature.
He was sent to Harrowstone to be confined until the priesthood could find the proper way to fully destroy him. It appears that a huge conflagration at the prison did the trick.
Unfortunately, you're not able to find much of anything on "the Lopper" with the exception of a roll call with his name on it, Vance Dilisnya.
---
As the Councilor reaches the ground floor he states, "I trust you have discovered a great many things? Can I ask you to gather and share your data with the full Town Council? If not tonight perhaps tomorrow?"
Definitely going to be an, interesting, party when we get back to the Prison. If the undead manifestations continue." Sterling notes dryly.
Sterling looks surprised by the Councilor's question.
(Meaning he blinks once, slowly, before pulling his hood back up into it's customary place.)
The cleric nods.
"I'm sure we can oblige. Tonight will be fine. Tomorrow We return to the prison to continue our investigation."
Hearing the councilor approach, Zek'Karis hides and unobtrusively (quietly) dons his all-encompassing cloak.
He waits for others to agree on the day.
He will have to appear to them at some point.
Confused, Cole waits until the Councilor leaves and looks to the others.
"Should we talk to the council now? We really don't have anything solid to offer them yet. Just some paperwork histories, and some suppositions: Nothing more. Shouldn't we explore the ruins completely and confirm our few suspicions before we subject them to this...stuff? We'd probably just spook them into burning us at the stake for being witches or something."
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