Ravengro, Take Two, Part the First
Our second day in Ravengro began with a traditional breakfast, but was interrupted when another person mentioned in the will came to town. His name (or her name, Changelings are funny like that) is Alan. The rest of breakfast consisted of introduction, Mondai's meddling (Yes, Alan has a cool eyepatch, but I'm sure she knows that already) and me explaining what had happened over the last day. We left the Lorrimor estate and decided to split up, after I passed Ms. Eris my healing items. She, Mondai, Seph, and Tilldrew would be investigating Harrowstone, the ruins of the prison we heard about last night. Alan and myself, on the other hand, decided to head into town and learn more about it.
It was at this time that we heard about some sort of disturbance near a statue in town. Alan and I started there first -- a small group of people were crowded around it, as it seems something interesting happened to it. And by "interesting" I mean "likely to have disastrous effects on us staying in Ravengro." There was blood everywhere on and around the statue, like someone had opened up a person's body and gone to town throwing blood all around. There was a mark that suspiciously looked like a "V" near the statue, but it wasn't any magic glyph I had ever seen. It seemed no one else knew what to make of it as well. Alan suggested that we ask the villagers if they knew what happened. This sounded like a good idea and the two of us learned about the mysterious history of Harrowstone -- a ruined prison that was destroyed by a fire in the year 4661, which killed all the prisoners, most of the guards, the warren of Harrowstone, and his wife. Locals seemed to believe that the old building (built in 4954) it was haunted...
My suggestion to cover more ground might have just put my friends in grave danger. It wouldn't be until later that night, when Mondai, Seph, and the others came back that I realized just how much trouble they would be in.
A bit more prodding with the crowd, we learned that the prisoners at Harrowstone were all criminals that were about to be executed, as it was only for the most dangerous of criminals. The fire that destroyed the prison was actually a blessing in the long run, as the prisoners were rioting that night and tried to riot and take over Harrowstone. If not for the sacrifice of the warden and guards, Harrowstone would have been overrun and who knows what would have happened to Ravengro?
Alan speculated that the 'v' was really an arrow, pointing towards town, but it was really inconclusive. I suggested that the two of us head to the town's church, as the late professor's journal mentioned that it might have more information about Harrowstone. Before we left though, Alan took a sample of the blood for later analysis.
Our arrival at the Church of Pharasma was met with little fanfare. We went up to the head cleric, and asked about the history of Harrowstone. He told us there were tomes within that we could use to research the revolt, but they were normally only allowed to members of the clergy and followers of Pharasma, neither of which Alan or I were. I attempted to bluff our way into the record room by saying I was a follower of Pharasma (I honestly had little qualm with her as she and my own beloved Desna have no issues with one another), but then the cleric countered that he he couldn't jus let random outsiders take a look.
I'm troubled that I was more aggravated about the fact that he still didn't let me read the stupid scriptures after I lied, than I am about the fact I lied about my beliefs in the first place. Even trying to play the "I'm a bard who wants to chronicle the histories of Ustalav" card was a failure. I'm not quite sure what Alan was doing as I was talking with the man, but she at least found where the records are held. I decided that we might as well abscond for the day and was just about to grab Alan when the priest stopped me and asked if I was the person who sneaked around in the Restlands last night.
The bluff came easy enough -- we had left something in the cemetery after the funeral and went to go get it. Since it was so late, we thought sneaking in would be a better idea than awakening the clerics or waiting for the morning. The man believed me, but a our actions and told me that, next time we want to go to the Restlands, we should get permission first.
Crisis averted. Thank the goddess. I grabbed Alan and absconded, telling the monk that we would leave the records for now. Mondai was probably a better choice to steal them under the cleric's nose and I wasn't in good enough form to be a distraction. We headed back to Ms. Kendra and ask her about Ravengro. She couldn't really think of anything but rumors and she didn't have any idea about the "v" we found on the ground.
Instead, she suggested we go out and visit various places in town. Ms. Kendra led us around the town square, showing us the forge (owned by a dwarf who usually used his skills to make farm tools), the apothecary, a town jail, the general store, the inn, town hall and The Silk Purse. It seems it is a building for a money lending business. Farming is lucrative but there are always... issues when it comes to business. Across the river was the Temple of Pharasma, which Alan and I were at earlier, as well as three councilor's houses, but not the one who read the will the day before. The inn we ate at was pretty good, and Alan heard some interesting gossip - it seems that the sherif has been poking in the apothecary's business, due to possible drug creation.
That is something we should probably check into later as well... Just... professional curiosity, yeah?
We headed home with Kendra, awaiting what the other group found out. Seph filled me in on what happened.
The Harrowstone Prison is a crumbling shell of a building and it definitely seemed to be the kind of place that would be "haunted". Tilldrew set an alarm on the front gate after the group sent Mondai to scout the beginning of the main building through the front gate, which was just as crumbled as the rest of the building. Past the main gate, there was a hut, the main building, and guard towers. The left gate, closest to the rest of the party seemed calm, but from the farther gate, the group could see lots of little red eyes glaring at them from across the grounds. That... is ridiculously creepy, but they didn't seem to attack or come closer, so they headed to the old hut first.
Tildrew's knowledge of engineering was helpful, as he was able to identify that the hut looked like it was about to fall any moment. They looked inside and saw lots of tolls, but they couldn't really identify them at all. Just as they left, the house collapses, but it seems only Mondai's reflexes were able to save her from the falling debris.
The red eyes were still looking towards them. The group scaled the wall towards that tower and through an apt use of Seph's Dancing Lights spell, illuminated the room and were faced with a swarm of really large rats. They left them alone, but not before tossing a vial of oil at one of the masses to light the rat on fire. The group absconded and, it seems, left the swarm to its devices.
The main building was the next to be explored. They sent Mondai in first, and she saw that much of the grass had been cut away. There were runes on the ground, ones consistent to both necromancy and abjuration spells. But they were non-active and already used. The balcony above was unstable, meaning that they had to be careful if they were to go upstairs. Mondai entered the entrance foyer, and then went west into a hallway, with the others following. Suddenly, all the doors opened, the badly burt faces of shrieking criminals flying right by and through the others. Just as the screaming reached its peak, it all stopped and the doors all slammed shut, isolating Mondai from the rest of the group. The drow tried opening and lockpicking the door to no avail, but Seph was able to break open the door after two tries.
Instead of leaving the ruins, they decided to play around more with Harrowstone. Harrowstone played back, and it seemed it has a morbid sense of humor. A living straight jacket knocked out Mondai, which prompted them to return to Ms. Kendra's home.
The first thing I did was heal Mondai as Ms. Kendra asked what they did. It ended up with the Harrowstone group telling jus what happened as we pressed Ms. Kendra for information about the professor's death. A bunch of children and their silly dares was the only reason why Professor Lorrimor's body was found.
We also learned about Haunts -- there are several different types, but they all occur when someone dies in an unfortunate situation. It can be damaged through positive energy and can be neutralized, but they're very tricky since they can reappear after a certain amount of time. We could possibly notice their manifestation, but... Well, yeah.
Now that we're together again, it seems that the best bet to find out more about the late Professor's death is to ask the head priest. So, off to the Temple of Pharasma once more. It seems the villagers who found him dead said his face was crushed in, possibly from statues falling down (which the others noticed), and was nearly unidentifiable. It seems, all in all, that it was an accident that he died. But that's not really good enough for us.
To make up for the amount of priest's time I've taken, I dropped a gold piece in their coffers, Mondai following my lead. The priest was so happy for our generosity that he was willing to heal the group! Wonderful! (Even though I can't actually get healed but, hey, everyone else is okay now!)
I will... finish this log later. Please await the next log.
Bard, Heiress of the House Galdana of Amaans, Fiancee of Count Haserton Lowls IV
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