Dread's Carrion Crown

Game Master Dread

The crowd flinches and pulls back from Balurks shouting

The Sherrif is quick to tell the folks to go back to their homes and he turns to the group.

I never thought you folks did this. The boy seemed a good sort. It looks like, by his dress, he came out here from sleeping...

Oh Quincey...Ancestors watch your journey.

Barek remains silent and looks at the head and at the Monument itself, trying to discern what could have done this.

Perception, Monument: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19
Heal, Remains: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Unable to determine how exactly the head had been removed from the body, Barek focuses on the Monument itself.

Following his examination, he pulls an old travelling cloak from his pack and covers Quincey's body with it.

"Sheriff, do you know of the Splatterman? Letters written in blood, one at a time, fits his methods. Do you know of anyone whose name starts with 'VE?' That may give us a clue as to how long before whomever, or, whatever, did this will strike again..."

Carla remains silent as the body is revealed. Her hands tremble in her pockets and Lawrence notices. He nibbles at her to try to break her out of stasis.

She finally looks around for other things to focus on. She tells Jack "Hey, maybe you can find some tracks here? I mean, I know I'm grasping at straws, but... isn't there something you can find?" Carla knows that it's a fool's request, so she adds "Maybe Lawrence can help? He has a great sense of smell."

Nodding, "Yeah, sure, I can give it a shot." Jack takes a look around, wondering if he can discern any real tracks.

Survival: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 6 + 1 = 14 +1 is to Track

He pauses in mid-hunt, turning his focus to Balurk. Grinning, he turns to the others and simply says, "See? Balurk gets it," before returning to his track hunting.

Lloyd stares at the screaming Balurk incredulously, and with an annoyed sigh he mutters to himself, "All that work to calm the townsfolk down and you went and scared them off."

Pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment, he turns his attention back to the sheriff, "You may not have thought that we committed this act of murder, my good sir," he explains, "but I overheard the people murmuring when we arrived. And whether or not they actually believe we did it or were just looking for someone to blame out of anger, I believed the best course of action would be to provide evidence to placate them. Wouldn't want an unruly mob now would we?"

The Sherrif looked at Barek like as if hed just said something sacrileges.

None of that kind of talk here. to say it is to invite the evil in. Cant excite the people more than they are. but no. I can think of no townsfolk whose name starts with the Letters VE

jack started looking around and Lawrence started to sniff around as well. The tracks were so badly obscured because of the crowd, it was night impossible to see anything and the scent was muddled because of the same.

However Jack did find were drops of blood had fallen on a plant's leaf and looking it was apparent every so often another drop would fall as they he and Lawrence moved away from the monument. When Jack lost sight of the next lawrence could find it by smell.

meanwhile The sherrif was nodding and agreeing with Lloyd.

Carla sees Barek investigating the body and goes help.

Perception on Monument: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Heal on corpse: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

She also asks "What did you find Jack? Should we follow that trail?"

She also mentions "If someone enchanted poor Quincey to sleep walk here just to be killed, then none of us is safe."

She also tries thinking of any historical figure or fact that could relate to VE.

History: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

As Carla moves to look at the monument, She sees the blood-stained plaque reading

In Memorium for the great sacrifice made for the citizens of Ravengro and Ustilav. Here is a list of the brave guards and people who gave their lives the night of the prison fire at Harrowstone.

A list of names follow. It looks to be about roughly 30 names. Starting with Warden Lyvar Hawkran, Vesorianna Hawkran, Gurtis Vortch, Antonis Balinea, Apostache Filosovei, Codrin Croditieraru, Constan Otvos
Costian Radachescu, Daniorec Iacobes, Dortlin Petrandrul, Dragominik Lahovary, Dragoslavian Korzha, Fonso Poenar, Garrikano Ghituc, Gunarin Lahovaci, Hanzi Pogoestescu, Horia Cernea, Ionaculai Giurescu, Khulaie Blerinesco, Kistin Cristescu, Lasho Predoiu, Liviu Donceanu, Marko Cretu,
Mazonn Lixandrescu, Mihail Radache, Nicolae Giurgiu, Patriel Mariu, Pitivo Blaga, Tawni Randulescu, Teodosie Salan, Valerikan Serban, Waltherum Stanca, Yanko Voica

It looks like Quincey had his head cut off almost surgically, but the odd thing, is his blood was collected carefully, not spilled all about.

"My apologies Sheriff. Ancestors know, I don't want to get everyone riled up again. I think our schedule for investigating Harrowstone has been shortened considerably." Barek shudders, not really wanting to get back to the cursed place. "You were right to keep people away, it truly is haunted with malevolent spirits. Some of us have the wounds to prove it..." Making a decision, he decides to trust the Sheriff, who has shown them nothing but understanding, and explain some of the stranger things found at the old prison.

"Q-Quincy? Dead?" Briar Rose stammers, the new warmth she was feeling inside suddenly snuffed out. She throws her arms around Barek, tears in her eyes. "This place is so horrible..."

She also asks "What did you find Jack? Should we follow that trail?"

Shaking his head, "Yeah, I'm not sure, Carla. It's hit or miss. I feel like I've got something, and then I seem to lose it. I just don't trust it enough to... well... trust it." He shrugs. "Sorry." He glances around at the scene, shaking his head in frustration.

and once again Lawrence moves toward a spot where a few drops of blood hit the plants nearby...

Between Jack and Lawrence you could follow the blood trail. Its sporadic but reasonably reliable

Carla says "So, here are the names of all the Harrowstone guards. It would be nice to know who are their families here, maybe they have some more information for us. Although people are usually creeped out by me when I talk to them, I'm sure they'd respond better to someone else talking."

Then, she muses "I think following this blood trail could leave us to some cultists, maybe. It may be worth our time." She is trying not to admit she isn't eager to return to Harrowstone anytime soon.

"If nothing else, following the trail of blood will at least show us where he was murdered," Lloyd explains, "There's far too little blood here for this to have been where he died."

Barek gives Briar Rose a squeeze around the shoulders, briefly wondering if she can feel it through her armor. Seeing that the rest of the group has started following a trail, he takes her hand and brings her along, saying, "If we can find the person that did this, we may be able to bring his spirit to rest."

Catching the last of what Lloyd was saying, Barek nods along. "Do you think he was exsanguinated before death? His body should have been covered in blood and very strangely wasn't..."

Leaving the Sherrif with his task, they followed the blood trail about 150 feet until they came to a small house. Lawrence was sniffing the Woodpile behind the house.

On new map in roll20

"Interesting. A very lonely-looking house. I wonder if anyone is home." Jack peers through the window out of curiosity.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Carla whispers loudly "Lawrence, get back here. There could be a scorpion there. I don't want you stung!" As Lawrence crawls back into her pocket, Carla says "Well, there's probably something in those woods worth checking. But... I won't be the one to check. I can't lift those logs." Her excuse seems weak, but she makes no effort to move further.

Barek lets go of Briar Rose's hand to walk a quick circumference of the house. Seeing nothing suspicious, he says, "There's one way to find out." He moves to a door and gives three sharp raps on it with his knuckle.

Assuming there is one, I didn't see anything on Roll20, but the right half of the map appears to be a wall that I couldn't see through.

To look in the window above the wood pile takes a DC 15 Dex check or acrobatics to not dislodge the wood. I fixed the light situation. Do you still want to knock?

Yep, I'll keep up with that plan unless someone stops me.

Barek Moves to the front door, while Jack tries not to disturb the log pile to look in a window. Lady Briar Rose and Carla watch Jack, while Lawrence runs back to Carla and climbs up her leg to his pocket.

Balurk and Lloyd move to the corner to watch Barek.

A slight pause and a tired old voice rings out Who is it?

Jack stops what he's doing and listens in to see what Barek's action accomplishes, if anything.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Perceive!: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Barek pauses, considering where he has heard the voice before, before coming to a realization. "The out-of-towner that helped to stop your mob at the funeral several nights ago," he calls through the door. "I'd like to speak with you, try to understand why you called everyone to consider Professor Lorrimor a necromancer..." Not really a bluff, just not the original purpose of the investigation.

a grumble from the other side of the door and he says Go away. Im tired. had a bad night last night

"There's also been a murder, sir," Lloyd states bluntly, "and the blood trail leads straight to your home."

Briar Rose sniffles, her heart cold. "Please talk to us, sir. Things are only going to get worse, we need to get to the bottom of this."

Diplo: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Balurk stands by. His immediate assumption is this person murdered Quincey, but he knows better than to jump to conclusions. Especially if it would cause the death of someone who has nothing to do with a crime.

A Murder you say?! Naturally you ...friends of that Necromancer...think I did it, thats why yur here. Be Gone with ya. If the Sherrif thought I did, hed be here instead of you. Yur nuttin but vigilantes

Lloyd, you should be able to see and control your token

Rolling his eyes, Jack moves over next to Barek, proceeding to yell through the door. "C'mon, man! You know, the more help we get, the quicker we can get this thing solved, and the quicker we'll be out of your hair. Huh? Huh? That's gotta sound pretty good to you. Not having to deal with us 'vigilantes', or whatever you wanna call us, I don't really care. We're just here to help, that's all. I don't really get why you people hate us so much."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Barek leans in close to Jack, speaking just under his breath, "If he doesn't open soon, do you think you could rake that lock? Claim the door was slightly opened when I knocked? We'll keep him talking in the mean time."

Carla watches the scene. Being very willing to trust people, she tells the others "He sounds innocent to me. Maybe we can get him on our side?"

The witch says loudly so the man can hear her "We followed the trail of blood from where we found the body to here. We are not looking for trouble, just trying to understand what happened to our friend. We are on the sheriff's side, I promise!" Lawrence pokes his head out of her pocket and nods once sharply, demonstrating his approval.

Barek leans in close to Jack, speaking just under his breath, "If he doesn't open soon, do you think you could rake that lock? Claim the door was slightly opened when I knocked? We'll keep him talking in the mean time."

Raising an eyebrow, thinking that's a pretty good idea, Jack gives a slight nod. "I can try." Double-checking to make sure the resident isn't looking through a window, Jack concentrates to remove his picks from his pack subtly and goes to work on the lock.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

"There's no need to resort to burglary. Yet." Lloyd whispers with harsh annoyance.

"Sir, we are just looking for information," he announces to the man behind the door, hoping his more eloquent manner of speech will resonate better with him, "And the sooner we can rule you out as a suspect, the sooner you'll be free of us forever."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

The group kept trying to convince the Farmer to open the door. At Bareks urgings Jack knelt and picked the lock on the front door, but before they opened it, Lloyd cautioned further diplomacy.

Inside movement could be heard, and the Famer said I said go away.Then there was a throaty growl and a slightly different voice said He is mine. You will learn to meddle in my affairs

The change in voice surprises Barek, who brings a spell to mind. He looks askance at Lloyd, but nods at Jack to keep working on the door. "Who is yours? And who are you to claim ownership of a person?!"

Briar Rose is sorely tempted to ask Balurk to apply his door-opening specialty skills.

Jack looked up and nodded as there was an audible *click* There no further noise from within the house.

Carla summons her arcane power and starts to detect magic.

Lloyd raises an eyebrow at the sudden growling and change in voice.

"I see," he muses before turning to Jack, "Burglary it is then. Proceed."

Balurk’s eyes almost popped out hearing the otber voice. He looked around and said, “Balurk can try to break door down?”

Barek takes a step to the side of the door to wave Balurk forward. "While not strictly necessary as Jack has already unlocked it, you can throw it open with much greater force than I can." Barek then signals Jack to go to the other side and give the big orc some room.

The orc cracks his knuckles, then shoulders, then neck...

Strength Check: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Before throwing his entire weight onto the door.

Balurk moved up at Bareks urgings and forced the door open. The inside of his small home could be seen. There Gibs stood, A nicely crafted Breastplate on, and war-razor in his hand. It glowed magical under Carla's gaze. Gibs eyes had a crazy look in them and that same guttural growl came out of his throat.

Lloyd you havent played in one of my games yet. Everyone will post their actions and I will sort it out in initiative order after posts. so everyone post. Please take into account the order but just post and ill make sense of it.

Initiative
20 Lloyd
19 Carla
19 Lawrence
17 Gibs
15 Jack
14 Barek
13 Briar Rose
5 Balurk

Effects Duration

Barek draws his blade and casts the spell lingering on his tongue, "!ترس"

Move action to draw Rapier, Standard to cast shield, duration 20 rounds

Carla says "Look, he might be enchanted. Try not to kill him!"

She focuses on Gibs and sends him a wave of bad luck through Lawrence's power.

Misfortune hex on him

Will save DC 15: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

It affects him, and this makes Carla let out a loud unnerving cackle.

Move action: Cackle hex. Misfortune on Gibs is on for 2 rounds.

Lloyd takes a moment to scan over the strangely aggressive farmer, to see if there's anything out of the ordinary other than his apparent anger issues. If not, then at least anything that might give the party an advantage to take him down nonlethally.

Identify creature.

Knowledge (Local): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

If the farmer is indeed just a humanoid and I beat the DC, Lloyd will use the Naturalist Bardic Performance to grant everyone a +1 insight bonus to AC, attack rolls, and saving throws against any abilities he might have

With a sigh of frustration as he pulls out his kukris, "Seriously, Carla? How do you expect me to do anything with these blades if I can't kill him?" he asks in a normal tone. "I'm open to suggestions."

Draw weapons(Double move)

@Jack: Since you have Two-weapon Fighting, you can draw both kukris with a single move action.

Assuming I can do this out of turn...

Carla says "Well use your head, butthead!" She smiles at herself for her clever wordplay. She completes "Get it? Butt him with your head? Haha!"

Ill give Briar Rose and Balurk til tonight, then advance the round.

Briar Rose tackles the man with all of Sarenrae's love.

Grapple (Provokes AoO): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18