Ovidiu, the Repentant's page

Further analysis of the prison confirms that it is still extremely haunted.

We seem to have accepted a mission from the ghost of Vesorianna, the wife of the former warden, to rid the ruins of the prison of five, powerful evil presences. She claims to be able to hold the rest of the prison in check if these are eliminated and her husband’s symbol of authority is returned to her. Frankly, it all seems a bit suspect: many people in Ravengro believe Vesorianna may have started the fire at Harrowstone. This could all be some sort of ectoplasmic turf war, and we could be unwitting patsies—or, witting patsies at a complete loss for anything else to go on. I’m not inclined to do everything Ms. Vesorianna says without some measure of caution. It’s possible I don’t trust her because she’s a ghost. Ghosts suppressing ghosts: I’m not sure Our Lady would approve.

We’ve finished searching the first floor. We opted not to make a thorough examination of the laundry room lest we be attacked by animate wash basins, but we did check the infirmary for medical supplies. These we were able to recover after having some of them forcibly dispensed onto us by a poltergeist. I must say that among our group, myself included, Miri V is probably the most proficient ghost slayer. Her stories remind me of my time with the Aljiba family caravan. Arlyxxanah, on the other hand, appears to be some sort of lycanthrope. I don’t know much about shapeshifters, but as she seems more intent on biting into me with pithy remarks than fangs, I’ll have to assume she has some measure of … control. I’m keeping silver close at hand.

We’ve made a brief attempt to scout the second floor. As we tried to establish the “lay of the land” we began to hear eerie flute music. All at once, skeletons began breaking out of the cells all around us. I managed to destroy the first wave of them with a burst of holy energy, but they kept coming. I spent most of the battle running interference and protecting our flank while Miri V disrupted them from a distance. Meanwhile, Isinwen attempted to counter the song that animated the creatures with music from what we assume was the Piper of Illmarsh’s instrument. This was only partially effective in that, while it slowed the undead, it also caused Isinwen to bleed from the eyes, ears and nose in a manner suggestive of cerebral haemorrhage. After waking up, she seemed disoriented and far away: apparently suffering no permanent damage.

We will continue to search the second floor of Harrowstone, hoping to make as much of a survey as possible before our resources run out.

Arlyxxanah — shape-shifting investigator
Ka'kutah — cleric-deafening gunslinger
Isinwen — un-brain-damaged witch
Miri Magave — skeleton-bashing fighter
Miri Vishki — story-telling sorcerer
Ovidiu — ground-holding cleric

Castril 22 - 23
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One of the things you come to grips with when your god violently severs her connection to your soul it that the event itself might not be the worst of it. Watching a town fall under siege by what appears to be an army of undead and knowing I can do to stop it is, in itself, a horrible punishment. Undead sightings have become more frequent in the last two days, and I had the misfortune to be involved in two of them.

The first was at the farmer’s market. All of us—that is, the wards of the Lorrimor estate—went into town to practise our trades and purchase provisions. I took the opportunity to offer my services as a diviner, but found it difficult to attract business on a cold Calistril afternoon. At least I’m still as good a prophet as the rest of my former order—and I would like to think better than some. Ka’Kutah met another young halfling who said he had been onto the Harrowstone grounds and offered to take Ka’Kutah in through a secret entrance. To his credit, Ka’Kutah tried to talk him down, but the youth insisted he would go that night to prove himself.

The market was interrupted by screams near the outskirts of the square and we soon saw a number of shambling skeletal figures moving though the crowd. Lacking the means I may have used in another life, I charged into the crowd to disintegrate them by more conventional means. That is to say: I woke up several minutes later choking on a potion and covered with blood. I am fairly certain skeletons do not bleed.

I’m told that we prevented severe injury from befalling anyone and dispatched the undead before the priests showed up to help. Father Grimburrow wasted no time in asking if I was responsible for the attack, which I suppose indicated where I stand with the clergy. He seemed particularly worried about my exposure to the materials in Dr. Lorrimor’s books, which I find curious. The Professor kept those books secreted away with such care that I’m surprised anyone but he knew about the vile things inside them. He asked that I attend the town meeting the next day and I agreed—though I can think of few better ways to get run out of town than to explain how I lost my skane.

After the priests left, we followed the skeletons’ tracks back to the Restlands. They came from multiple graves around the cemetery—probably not an animate dead spell.

Long after dinner that evening, we realized that Ku’Kutah’s halfling friend was, to our knowledge, still planning to infiltrate Harrowstone at midnight. After much hand-wringing, we determined to stop him. We recruited Imdlara and Morguvic to watch over the house and made for the prison. On arrival, we found no evidence of the halfling or the concealed entrance he had mentioned and determined we had been fooled. We returned to bed colder and crankier.

The next day was spent mostly in libraries around town. The undead attacks led us back to Professor Lorrimor’s journal, and from there to all manner of local archives in search of information about the Whispering Way: the cabal of necromancers that the Professor was convinced had established a foothold in town. Our last stop was town hall, where we helped set up for the town meeting after completing our research.

For the meeting, Father Grimburrow asked me to sit near the front, though I never got the chance to find out why. Before things were fully underway, torches around the room exploded, setting much of the wooden structure on fire. While the citizenry was quick to form a mob and mass for the door, my fellow wards and I managed to get most of the flames under control quite quickly. After glancing outside and seeing undead, Miri Magravi barricaded the doors to keep the panicked citizenry inside and the creatures out long enough for Father Grimburrow to solve both problems with a massive influx of positive energy. The meeting was adjourned, albeit somewhat prematurely.

Cast:

Arlyxannah, the Sleuth
Isinwen, the Fletcher
Ku’Kutah, the Hunter
Miri, the Merchant
Miri, the Wagonmaster
Ovidiu, the Vagabond

Castril 20 (card: Bear)
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These people are pieces of work. The Professor’s journal gives one hint that he went to an ostensibly-fake Pharasmin mausoleum as part of his investigations, and they immediately insist on breaking into it themselves. Together for 48 hours and already we’re acting like the blind leading the blind. I accompanied them as far as the Restlands, where it was all I could do to convince them not to leave a pack mule conspicuously outside while they broke in. I can’t be a part of that. I don’t know what my reputation is around here, but I’ll be damned—potentially literally—if I’m going to spend my first days back in Ustalav breaking wards and trespassing. Never again. I left them to it and returned to the Lorrimor estate with Iniswen.

We arrived to find Kendra passed out with a migraine, though two of her friends waited in the living room. Morgvic is also a priest of Pharasma, but he follows a bizarre and frankly heretical philosophy, denying prophecy for anarchy. Ironic that Grimburrow would call me an apostate when this man serves in his temple. Imdlara is an elf, though not one who takes pains to hide her heritage as Iniswen does. Given the treatment we’ve been getting, I’m shocked she hasn’t been run out of town. Despite their past deeds, my time at Urion taught me that many elves are still fighting, and despite their years, many will die as quickly as we will at the Worldwound.

Our introductions were cut short by the arrival of Quess, a lady from The Silk Purse. She told us that someone had tried to pawn an artifact stolen from Professor Lorrimor, and offered us the opportunity to retrieve it. With Kendra still feeling unwell, we assented and soon joined her at the Silk Purse. The items turned out to be stones called the Sarkoris Shards, of which Iniswen had some knowledge. Three of the stones had been stolen, though the apprehended pawner, Sier, had only tried to fence one. After a brief interview with him, we set out on the trail of the other stones.

No sooner were we out of the Purse, however, than the town square was attacked by large, mosquito-like creatures. Endralla managed to kill one with her crossbow before it could hurt anyone, but the other flew into the panicking crowd and attached itself to a bystander. By the time we got creature off of the man, Petros, he had lost a lot of blood, and we decided to take him to the temple. I had been hoping to start a difficult dialogue with Father Grimburrow anyway, and this seemed like an opportunity to do so. While Grimburrow was indisposed, we were able to leave petros with his attendants, along with a message from me for the good father.

During the attack, I had noted that the creatures appeared to swoop and dive in time with the music form the string quartet in the square. We stopped to interview one of the musicians, but discovered nothing helpful—he did not appear to have any conscious connection to the attack.

By the time we had finished, it was getting dark, so we returned to the manor. There we discovered something curious had appeared on the table: a divination board. Unlike those I had heard of in my time studying the Harrow, this one appeared to radiate magic, and was of fine workmanship. I wasted no time in attempting to use the board, asking a fairly conventional performance question as to whether a spirit was there with me. Immediately, I felt—

[page missing]

—around in circles. I shouldn’t have done that.

Castril 21 (card: Dance)
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We set out on the trail of the missing Shards. Iniswin, who is apparently a witch on top of being an elf, had her fox, Duck, lead us into a dingier part of town, where he came to a stop and refused to take us any farther. We soon realized why as a large, obviously undead boar bore down upon us from out of some rubble nearby. After a brief demonstration of Morguvic's heretical powers, we put the beast down and were back on the trail of the stones. Duck traced them to a building that looked suspiciously less rundown than those around it. With some searching and prying, Imdlara found a secret entrance, and was able to retrieve the stones from what she reported as some sort of fungal growth inside.

On returning the stones to the the Lorrimer estate, we discovered them to be something akin to spellbooks, from which a witch like Iniswin could learn some particularly repulsive spells. We resolved to return them to the University with the rest of Professor Lorrimor’s questionable texts during our forthcoming visit.

Cast:
Ovidiu the Apostate (Fallen Cleric 1)
Morguvic the Apostate (Apparently-totally-legitimate Cleric 1)
Iniswin the Elf (Non-cannibal Witch 1)
Imdlara the Elf (Rogue 1)