Vesorianna event [spoiler-gandal's players stay out]

[Gandal]

Maybe it is me who don't get how this encounter is meant to be resolved,but the HoH module isn't very specific about it.
Gibs every 1d4+2 nights goes around Ravengro and kills one animal per night,then....?
Once he has enough blood he writes a letter of the name Vesorianna on the statue than splats the remaining blood around it,ok,but how long he takes to gather enough blood? every animal he kills i can assume he writes a new letter (making it a letter every 1d4+2 nights) or it is one letter every 2-3 animals?(which means a letter every 3d4 nights at best).
Also, how long do those letters stay on the monument? Isn't the people of Ravengro supposed to wash them away?
Please some clarification.

[Gonturan]

I think the timeline is meant to be a bit flexible, so that you can adapt it to serve the needs of your campaign.

In my case, I simply assumed that Gibs was able to paint one letter per night. But I also took pains to ensure that the PCs got to the monument early (the town's stray dog led a PC there after the first letter).

If your PCs are taking it easy in Ravengro, doing lots of research and role-playing, consider spreading out the timeline to allow them more breathing room.

I don't think the Ravengrans are supposed to see the letters on their own. Maybe no one hangs around the monument any more. But once the PCs point the letters out to them, they would certainly dispatch somebody to clean them off. Which makes it even creepier if they start appearing somewhere else...

[Helaman]

Once every night is too hard for the villian (amply possessed) to pull off... so night 1, then night 3 is how I run it... after that its a bit of a crap shoot but a fun one.

Spoiler:

So Gibs comes back and writes letter 3, call it on day 4 or 5... drive him to do it, running up to the monument and unless the players have taken pains to stop him, gets letter 3 down. If I were one of the players? I'd have that monument staked out... cool by me - its one less night of rest and one more day delay in grinding Harrowstone.

So they get Gibs. Huzzah... issue resolved. Likely Gibs will not be taken alive but if he is, so be it - he's unco-operative. 'Hohoho' the players chortle - we got him. No more letters... until 2-3 nights latter the 4th letter goes down... and the players will have to deal with that all over again.

I keep saying on this and other threads that the characters need to be led, not railroaded, from grinding Harrowstone - its the heart of the adventure and anything cool flows from it... without it the players have to just wait until 30 days are up. without it any number of groovy possibilities just dont happen.

Its stuff like this, dream summonings that keep players from a full night sleep, town events and so on that should be used to build up the horror flavour and tension.

If Harrowstone is clear by day 3, its just another dungeon grind adventure.

Stuff to slow it down:

Pharasism holiday where the dead are said to be especially powerful, followed by a day when they are weaker (you get a 1 day delay) - represented in a Pharasism story when Urgathoa stirred up the dead or something and then Pharasma laid down a beat down... effect? Dead are +1 to hit and have a higher DC resistance to channel (+1 DC) - next day? Undead are -1 initiative and -1 DC to resist channelling (or whatever) - Father G strongly recommends against going up there.

Sherrif calls party to testify in Gibs trial or post mortum hearing.

Townhall text mentions a annual cookout - have one and have Kendra strongly recommend their attendance and possible participation (bonus trust on the line)

Missing Child - opposite direction to harrowstone... its simply a lost child, nothing supernatural... Help and get trust, dont and lose a point.

Barn Raising or similar - bonus trust for helping.

The 'Five' haunting dreams... Father Grimburrow can help with enough Protection from evil spells to let the players sleep otherwise they don't get a full nights rest... Casters MAY be able to protect themselves... Use fatigue rules here. Should be good to delay party for 1 day as casters dont get spells back for that first night, possibly a second.

Undead attack at night... players might be fully rested but they'll blow much of their magic in the encounter... effect? Generally they'll need to rest, delaying by another day.

staking out the monument is just another.

Sooner or later the players WILL get to the heart of the trouble and will realise that they MUST cleanse the place but I'd prefer if it didnt happen immedietely.