Of course, at some point the characters might actually have found evidence that Harrowstone is haunted and that's where the other events of the module can be used to keep the good priest busy tending to his fellow Ravengrovians (especially if the attack on the town hall has taken place). His duty is with the people of Ravengro and he then asks the heroes to do what they do best - be heroes.
Alternatively, Father Grimburrow might believe the heroes when they tell him Harrowstone is indeed haunted. Feeling ill-equipped to deal with a haunting (for whatever reason), he might summon for help from one of the larger temples in the region but that help won't come fast. With the Splatter Man doing his thing, there's a good chance any help the church of Pharasma sends won't make it in time.
Edit: Added spoiler tags
I'm running Grimbarrow as reflexively taking up a defensive posture. He knows the ruins are capital-E evil, but he doesn't think there's anything he can do about it. However, he does believe that he can help the people of Ravengro by defending them. So he will do what he can. He's a stubborn old man, not subject to changing his ways (did you see his picture?!), so he is convinced that he has found the best course of action for himself. But he's not opposed to the adventurers "pouring out their youth" against the evil, if they are idealistic enough to think that will do any good. May Pharasma rest their souls.
Remember, the man is "TN" not "NG." The definition I use in my games (and I believe this is reflected in the rulebook), is that Neutral people "generally want Good to happen, but aren't about to risk their own necks to make it happen" whereas Good people "are willing to risk and sacrifice to make Good a reality."
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Does the party have a Cleric, Inquisitor, Oracle in it? My group is being polite and a little bit sneaky. For the most part they pass themselves off as just friends and 'mostly' harmless passers by. The party Monk and Inquisitor as putting in polite requests with the temple alcolytes to look up records. (At least until they can formlly request to hit the Temples books themselves.)
So far, the Father and the local Clerics think they're old reseach buddies of the proof and just shrug at their curiosity.
The Father in my game is aware something is 'wrong' with the town, but he thinks it's just everyone's nerves. So far the hauntings have been minor.
I am almost certain when encountering the haunting of harrowstone my players will go to the temple and tell them about it and ask/demand that they do their duty in cleansing the haunting.
It is a temple of pharasma and they would certainly obligated to do something about it, how would you deal with this. I don't want my players to just have the temple do the work for them, ideas?
Page 37 of the Rule of Fear covers this pretty well and is an excellent resource for running this AP.
"... most [Ustalavs] seek to ward off things stalking the dark rather than jeopardizing their lives and those of their families by confronting the supernatural head-on... some[one] takes it upon herself to liberate her people from whatever legend of bogeyman preys upon the region. Few return from their quests - and worse, some return as new menaces now in league with that which they hoped to destroy... still others awake long-sleeping horrors, bringing total ruin down upon their neighbors. Thus, in the Ustalavic mind, heroes and fools walk the same path..."
Father Grimburrow's response could well be a lecture to the PCs explaining how things really work.
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Ok, so my Father Grimburrow working with the Warden conspiracy took off, and last night, when the group finished Book 1, I winged a bit of cheese that just felt right. Spoilers within...
Anyway, the party had already seen to Vesorianna's body's proper burial, so when they handed her the Warden's Badge, she was able to discorporate and rest in peace. In her place, however, was that ioun stone cloud Aeon from Bestiary 2. He gave the party a generic 'Thank you for your service' spiel and plane shifted away.
Getting back to town to find Gibs completely mad after having confessed to the monument desecration, they visited Grimburrow who looked anxious. He said some ominous thing about having a visitor, then cast 'Remove Curse' on the barbarian who fell prey to the Iron Maiden haunt, fell limp and started sobbing. The Aeon visited him too, tasking him with one last mission: Cast Remove Curse on the Barbarain and never cast another spell again.
Pharasma stripped his powers. As Grimburrow said: "How did that damn aeon put it... 'For decades of inaction.'" This really made the paladin and the oracle feel bad, but they both knew there was nothing they could do to reconcile the gross negligence that Grimburrow had exhibited by leaving the haunted prison not 5 miles away untouched for all of the years he had been there.
The wrap up to his Haunting of Harrowstone
An interesting conclusion, actually. I liked it. However, I do have one question...
To archmagi1
To Luther and archmagi1
Paracletus' study emotion vs logic, and the fact that Vesorianna had broken free of the grief that kept her from moving on and rededicate herself to holding the other spirits back would have been fascinating for it. Further, the Father's reason for making his deal with the Warden would have been even more interesting.
Now able to finish it's report, it passes the message on from Pharasma in order to make a final study of emotion from the Father.
Why did it handle the message and not a psychopomp? Maybe the psychopomp tasked with the message offered something in trade in exchange for letting it make the delivery.
Pharasma isn't the type to care if a specific psychopomp delivers the message, she would just want it delivered after all.
This actually brings the possibility to expand this. Maybe the psychopomp that "traded" the duty to the Paracletus was a Nosoi psychopomp who had been able to get the task in order to get a break, and decided to take the time on the material plane to get some good stories to tell. Nosoi's love their breaks and gossip after all, and are big on being scribes.
This particular Nosoi has probably also noticed the PC's, and fro here on he might appear now and then, taking notes on what they're doing. Depending on what they do, he may decide to do actual interviews with them to better understand their motivations and reasoning for his "report". In exchange, he may offer them information that they miss, or point them in the directions of personal quests. And considering the Way's involvement, he might even see this as a "working vacation" from scribing at the Boneyard or could be officially assigned to keep an eye on the PC's.