Father Grimburrow __'s page

"I'll stay with you through this. But if you decide you want a burial on the cemetery of Abadar, we need to include a priest of Abadar in that."

"Another consideration is the size of the funeral party. If there will be more than forty people it will get crowded at my chapel."

"I'm good." Father Grimburrow replies to Menan.

"Lady Eleanor, we need to talk about the burial ceremony. I'm honored, that you called for me in this exceptional situation."

"But before we continue organizing the practical things to get Lord Vanderbuilt to his final resting place, you need to decide if you want this place to be on the old cemetery at the chapel of Pharasma, or if you'd prefer a grave on the cemetery of the temple of Abadar."

Father Grimburrow comes back the next day to check on Lady Eleanor. As Menan intercepts him, he takes a look at the paper. "It is hard to tell what is the problem with that. As you found it next to the deceased, it is probably related somehow, but your guess is as good as mine."

"I didn't notice. You'd need to ask someone else to see the deceased." Father Grimburrow replies. "But I don't think this is the time."

Father Grimburrow looks at Menan quizzically.

Shortly thereafter Father Grimburrow comes to the salon followed by Lady Eleanor. "It is nice to see you here. I would appreciate it very much, if you could stay here for the night to keep the family company. Especially Lady Eleanor."

"To keep their thoughts off stupid ideas."

As the lord can't be helped with healing, Father Grimburrow casts a gentle repose on the corpse. "My condolences Lady Vanderbuilt. Would you like to talk about the situation in a more private environment?"

To Faerveren he tells "Please have the lord placed on the bed in a more dignified position."

Then he leads Lady Eleanor away from the scene of death.

Father Grimburrow follows. It is not clear to him what is going on, but obviously something that puts that young woman in a state close to panic. And as he isn't busy with urgent things he can as well look himself what it is.

The pace of Faerveren is too fast for him. But he hurries as fast as his physical constitution allows. Once he reaches be building and finally the scene he lifts his holy symbol and with a short prayer channels positive energy to heal.

Father Grimburrow comes out of the side room. "Where to? What happened?"

Father Grumburrow smiles at Menan. To Persephone he nods in agreement as she suggests the removal of the corpses, but raises a brow when informed how. "That is an odd wy of dealing with that."

"But we won't put them on a cemetery anyway, so..."

Father Grimburrow casts a spell to check if the ghost is gone. "Yes, I feel no undead presence anymore."

For as long as the spell lasts, the priest walks about the house to check it all out. "I'd say we're good here. That is a great day for Pharasma!"

"I'm no ghost, so I can't tell what it saw in you. If it's a special Variel vibe that you give off, or that you're just an elf with similar looks as your great uncle."

"From my experience ghosts aren't just the same people, but incorporeal. Like zombies. Same body, but the mind is gone. With ghosts the body is gone, and a particular thing obsesses what is left of the person that can't move on. At least that is my impression. I might be wrong. But ghosts usually don't offer themself for proper examination."

"Good day to you too."

"It is no news I have. We want to check on the ghost of Fallon Duke of Seacrest to check if it is gone. And in case it is not, we'd like to have you along to talk to him."

"It would be better to have more people if the ghost still is there. And if the ghost wants to talk we'd need Menan."

"Let's go and find him."

Father Grimburrow leads the way to the premises of Lady Adelaide, where he asks for the Variels.

"I can come and check. Where are the others?"

Father Grimburrow is on the cemetery raking leaves. He comes over to join Persephone after few minutes. "How are you doing?"

"That sounds like fun. I'll be there to watch." Father Grimburrow tells.

"The duke probably had some writings, but with the state of his castle, all that is lost. Some of the noble families might have copies of such writings in their possession. Some of them have a long history in the town."

"It's still early for lunch, so there is no hurry. Or was it an offer for lunch?"

Father Grimburrow holds his service again, but due to the weather, even less people than usual join him.

He uses the opportunity to make the service about praying for the ones to be born for the living and those on the verge of leaving life and moving on to The Boneyard.

"Who murdered whom, and who might be after you then?" Father Grimburrow asks as he lost the thread.

"Not really. They have no office outside the temple. And as I have no business with the temple, there is little chance to meet."

"It is also a rare event when one of them dies. As far as I know it hasn't happened during my time."

"Not really. The closest thing to a magistrate is the court that comes together for important cases. But that consists of the high priest of Abadar, the head of the City watch and the city's major."

"Calling to their authority wouldn't speed it up, but create a real big issue. Right now we're talking about money changing hands. If you're going to ask who gets to lead the Duke's affairs until the heir is found, at that level, you're basically asking them to take their hat and leave office."

"How far away is this Kyonin? Would it be worth finding out what the law there says? Or isn't it worth it, because no one knows if the result of that would be accepted here anyway? I don't know."

"If it is one thing you can trust the church of Abadar with, it is your money. That is going nowhere."

"The interesting question you raise Arawyn, is if there is a way to have the named seneschal to mandate you instead. How are such responsibilities passed on under elven legal systems?"

Father Grimburrow goes over the short list and strikes out the girls, leaving 18 living sons of single mothers.

"That is still a lot. Not all of them live here anymore. Some went to the sea. Some I don't know where to look for. The old women I all know personally though."

With nothing better to do some of the party sit down with pencil and paper while Father Grimburrow reads through the lists and reads out all childs which have only a mother listed as parent. He also names all women that died, to mark off the single mothers who no longer live.

In the end there are 52 single mother births in the assumed time. Of those 52 children, 7 died in young years. Of the Mothers, 9 are still alive. Of the children 38.

"It is not impossible. But this is only of the births and death I'm involved in and what the midwives tell me. If a duke wants to hide something it is easy enough done."

"But it might be in there somewhere. Feel free to search for it. If you narrow the year of birth down to a range of five years it shouldn't be over 2000 births."

Father Grimburrow invites all into his little office where he stores the archives of births and deaths within Abadon.

"Please place the chest over there." He points to a free corner.

"This starts to get the special charm of a grave robbing." Father Grimburrow intervenes.

"This vault is well build and hidden. As long as the 'hidden' part stays true. Because if you know about it, then a simple pickaxe will get you into it."

"I'd like to take the book with the family history of the duke and add it to my archive in the chapel. It is of no use here anyway."

"Before we waste another day, let me try to help."

Father Grimburrow grabs his holy symbol. "If you allow, I will bestow you with divine insight for this task."

As Faerveren agrees, Father Grimburrow cast a spell on her.

+3 Insight

"Looks like blood to me." Father Grimburrow comments.

"Seems like he was put to rest properly and his grave wasn't disturbed." Father grimburrow concludes.

He uses the opportunity to consecrate the place. Just in case.

"That skeleton attacking the cube." Faerveren spreads the word.

"More undead?" Father Grimburrow replies irritated. He marches down the stairs to look into this.

He is startled by the size of the skeleton, as he would have expected a human skeleton, but there is not much time for wondering, as the thing winks out of existence a moment later.

"That is strange."

"Did I summon what?" Father Grimburrow inquires from the safety of outside where he can't see nothing of the fight.

Father Grimburrow holds up his holy symbol and channels positive energy to heal.

Channel: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 3, 1, 6) = 14

"Better?"

"What have you found down there?" Father Grimborrow inquires.

"Looks like you're far ahead of me already. But it sounds like a reasonable conclusion."

"I'm not rich enough to worry myself with writing a will, much less where to put it."

"Phew. That was not bad." Grimburrow states. "No one hurt. And we got some hint at the reason this ghost is around."

"The worst danger with a ghost is to be touched. I have spells prepared to protect two of us from that."

Father Grimburrow casts it on any two that claim them.

"Well, this is unbelievable."

"Anyway, where did you meet that ghost?"

"Yes, I want to go there and take a look, and was wondering when you would have time to accompany me?"

"A ghost has unfinished business in this world that binds it here. And it has no power to complete that business. From the act of it one can often conclude what the business is. Then we could be able to finish it."

"So the goal of the preparation should be to make sure we can defeat it for the day if necessary to to leave the place without getting seriously harmed."

"Well, this shouldn't surprise us. If they were stupid, they wouldn't be that successful."

"The other thing I wanted to talk about is the ghost. When can we go there to investigate?"

"Same to you. I heard the refusal to buy wine went - not worse than expected but in an unexpected way. Let's see if they keep up the harassment."

"Do you have any lead who is responsible for this. I mean directly. I think there is no question that Marinelli is behind it."

"I guess so far you can console yourself with the money saved?"

"I'll take a beer and wait for the the Variel's to arrive." He walks over to Faerveren and takes a seat.

"That smells good." Father Grimburrow states as he enters the tavern. He looks out for familiar faces.

"Hello Isabella. How are you."

"I wanted to check on you how the 'rebellion' is going so far. I haven't heard from any of you. Only Zokar came for a visit and told about the assault of some 'whirlwinds'."

"I appreciate you being worried about my well being. But you walked away from it and got the curse removed. I could do that too. But my focus would lie on protecting against being cursed as a preparation."

"What exactly were you cursed with?"

After a while Father Grimburrow shows up and comes to the table. "I got one more signature. [b]"Burton didn't want to sign. So I only have one more signature. Let's hope Isabella will join."

Grimburrow gets up an puts a hand on the shopkeeper's shoulder. "No worries, Zokar. I'll be here on Wealday too."

He takes the paper. "Let's meet again tomorrow evening to see if we're prepared enough to make it work."