The Carrion Crown - Session X

Session 10: The Dungeon of Harrowstone III (23^rd January 2013)

This is the final session of the first adventure module in the Carrion Crown series: The Haunting of Harrowstone.

 

Harrowstone Prison - used without permission

Our GM will be taking a break for the next few weeks whilst he returns home to a land Down Under. Our ranger has said he would run a short game to fill in until our next foray into Ustalav. I think he said it was a chivalry and sorcery type game involving knight and wizards. Sounds fun, and I am looking forward to it.

Anway, here is the write up of the final session in this particular module...

The Pathfinders

Arsok – Half-Orc Conjurer
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger
Zirul – Half-Elf Cleric

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 13 – morning)

I awoke late this morning to a knocking at the door. The effects of the celebrations from the night before left me feeling a little worse for wear, and I slowly staggered downstairs to see the sheriff at the door. It seems another letter had been scrawled in blood upon one of the walls of the buildings in the town centre. We were not overly concerned with this news as this was only the fourth letter of the warden’s wife’s very long name, Vesorianna, and we had plenty of time to spare before we had to resolve the problem of Harrowstone.

When I readied myself for our next foray to the prison on the hill, I noticed that the hand-axe had gone. I searched for it frantically but could find it nowhere. Moebius suggested I spoke to Father Grimburrow about the axe and left me to it. So, when we made our way to the prison for, hopefully, our final visit, we called off at the temple of Pharasma. Father Grimburrow and his acolytes were hard at work renovating their garden; the sack of gold I gave them yesterday was being well spent.

Father took me into the temple and up to the altar, above which I espied my hand axe. I made to grab for it but Father Grimburrow was quicker. He tripped me, my head hit the font, and he grabbed the hand axe from the shelf. He then purposefully lowered the axe into the font of Holy Water. I watched in horror, but after a few moments my head seemed to clear and I saw the axe in a different light; the curse had been lifted.

The Reaper’s Hold

We all headed up to the prison to continue with our quest. We made it back to the central room in the basement which had the plaques above each door. We decided to head through the door marked The Reaper’s Hold. Beyond was a short corridor ending in a portcullis that was in the down position. On either side of the corridor was a door. We opened the door on the right and entered what looked like a guard room. Inside we found the winch that activated the portcullis and decided to raise it and then wedge it in the open position. We decided to ignore the room opposite and made our way into the room beyond the portcullis. Inside we found several cells with their iron doors ajar, but all turned out to be empty. In the far corner of the room we found a door that led into a further room beyond.

The room beyond appeared to be a torture chamber, in the centre of which there was a rack with a skeleton in guard uniform upon it. Around the room were a variety of torture implements and a massive iron maiden. We split up and investigated what was there. Zef removed a large disk from the racked corpse’s mouth and found a set of keys beneath it. He grabbed them and stuffed them into his pocket. Nothing else was found in the room, so we decided we should return to the room in the corridor we had missed. It was then that a couple of us noticed that there was something unusual with the wall to our left upon entering. Zef was able to quickly pop the secret door open and we all entered a narrow, winding corridor that led into the darkness for about thirty or so feet. I was bringing up the rear, so would have been last to enter the room beyond if things didn’t take a strange turn.

The Splatter Man

Moments after entering the room, my companions began to beat at the wall opposite with their weapons and a few began to panic, fear spreading across their faces. Not wanting to join in with the madness, I decided to keep watch in case anything came out of the water-filled oubliette in the centre of the room. Zirul poured Holy Water into the oubliette and Zef started to hit the wall with the Hammer from the set of artefacts that were supposed to help us against the five dangerous prisoners. After a while, the wall began to shudder as my companions began to throw spells at it. All this was strange to my eyes, I could see no reason why they would attack a blank wall, but I later found out that something was affecting their judgment and that they could see their names being written in blood, letter by letter, upon the wall in front of them. Whenever they struck the wall by might or magic, their names started to erase, so they all wished to erase their names from the wall. It seemed that at a point when all of their names were erased, there appeared a ghostly apparition from the oubliette.

Dressed in prison uniform and incorporeal to look at, the apparition began to cast a spell. My companions turned their attention to the new arrival just as five large rats appeared within the chamber. All hell then broke loose as the magicians in the party fired off many spells and summoned an array of beings from beyond this plane. Zef got to work with his bow but was struck a mighty blow that almost killed him there and then, and I tried to pick some of the rats off with my crossbow. I managed to pin one to the wall but it was proving difficult to take down the Splatter Man. The air was full of magical discharge and the battle continued for several minutes before we realised that it may have been better to attack his rat minions instead. These were taken out very quickly but not before they were magically grown in size. I managed to stab and kill one from behind at the same time as a couple of the others were destroyed by Zef and the mages. Zirul used his Blessed sword and chopped the Splatter Man in half. It seemed that the Splatter Man could indeed be hurt more by hitting his minions than his ethereal body.

Zef and the others were seriously injured, so Zirul healed them whilst I jumped into the oubliette and swam to the bottom to retrieve the Splatter Man’s corpse. I also found some magical items at the bottom of the flooded pit. I kept the magical ring of protection and a magical mithril dagger, but gave the magical sword to our cleric as he would be best suited to using it.

The Warden’s Safe

We decided to rest up a bit so returned to the warden’s safe room to see if the keys that Zef had found fitted the lock. The safe opened when we found the right key and inside we found a pile of legal papers, a sack of gold coins and several magical potions. We put these into a sack and loaded them onto Moebius’s mule waiting patiently outside.

We next returned to visit the wardens’ wife to ask if we had indeed put an end to the Splatter Man. Vesorianna responded that we had indeed put paid to him but she reminded us that there was still one more to destroy before she could finally rest in peace. We assured her we would be heading back into the prison depths directly to complete our mission.

The Marshwater Marauder

There were only two more rooms to check in the dungeon so we decided to check out the one opposite the portcullis control room first as we had already been that way and it seemed the quietest. Famous last words!

Zef pushed open the door to a medium sized chamber. Inside it appeared to be a guard room. Several suits of armour and weapons were stacked against the walls. In the centre of the room was a table; upon which was the body of a dwarf. On another table were a large hammer and three skulls, with pieces broken off and put together in attempt to make a fourth skull.

As soon as Zef set foot into the room, the leathery body of the long dead dwarf on the table stirred into un-life. The dwarf began to attack and the three skulls upon the table rose up and flew towards us. Zef was hit by the Marauder and he staggered under the force of the blow. A piece of his skull flew off to fill a gap in one of the ones flying around the room. Zirul summoned the power of his god and cast it at the skulls which all exploded in a shower of fragments. I managed to squeeze between the combatants and caught the Marshwater Marauder unawares with the dagger I had picked up in the other room. He collapsed to the floor.

After the tough fights we had had the day before, this fight was a bit of an anti-climax. We had destroyed all of the ghostly prison ringleaders.

We didn’t find anything in the room itself but noticed the faint outline of a secret door in one of the walls. We managed to open it without mishap and entered an armoury beyond. The room was full of all types of masterwork arms and armour, as well as several magical items.

We shared these amongst ourselves and investigated the final room in the lower level. Inside we found that the room was burnt out by the fire the prisoners had set when they attempted their breakout. We headed back upstairs to the warden’s wife’s room and, as we entered, the warden’s wife appeared and smiled at us. She confirmed that the last of the prisoners had been defeated and she was now at liberty to pass over to the other side. She thanked us, sighed and dissipated before our eyes.

All of the armaments were loaded onto Moebius’s mule and we headed back into town. We noticed that the birds had started to return to the prison grounds and began to sing. As we walked trough the town centre, we were mobbed by the townsfolk, congratulating us and wanting to hear our stories. The mayor managed to guide us back home safely and requested our presence at the Town Hall the following day for a presentation.

We rested, healed, and divvied up the treasure we had found in the dungeon over the course of the rest of the day. Zef, Zirul, Moebius and I also headed to the merchant’s place and traded our treasure for items more suited to our personal needs whilst Arsok visited Gibbs in prison and found that he was no longer screaming and no longer possessed. In fact, he seemed unaware of his surroundings and couldn’t remember why he was in prison.

The Reward (Day 14 – morning)

The following morning, after our usual poor breakfast of gruel, we headed to the Town Hall. There was a long, boring ceremony in which we were given a hefty sum of gold as a reward for ridding the town of its curse and promised we would always find a warm welcome in Ravengro. Zef, wriggled with embarrassment and it was easy to see he was not comfortable with the situation.

 

Once the ceremony was over, we found we still had a couple of weeks left to make good our promise to the professor. We spent the next two weeks looking after Kendra before finally packing our bags, collecting up the professor’s books and heading off to Lepistadt to fulfil the final part of our pledge in his memory.

The Carrion Crown - Session IX

Session 9: The Dungeon of Harrowstone II (16^th January 2013)

The Pathfinders

Arsok – Half-Orc Conjurer
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger
Zirul – Half-Elf Cleric

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 12 – morning)

Just as we started to make our way into the corridor, we were brought to a halt by another “Hallo” from above. An enormous Half-Orc with a great axe slung across his back joined us in the chamber and introduced himself. At first, we were taken aback by his appearance but his reassurance that he knew the professor and had rushed to join us put our minds at ease. Another companion is always of great comfort at times like this.

The Plaque Room

Zef and I scouted ahead of the rest of the party and very soon we emerged into a largish room with a door in each wall located at each of the cardinal points. In the middle of the room was a pile of rubble surrounding a staircase going up to the level above, and several skeletons were scattered around the room. The rest of the party entered the room and we started to search about for anything of value. As soon as the last of us entered the room, the piles of bones began to move. Zef quickly put a couple of arrows into one of them and I stabbed one with the point of my rapier before Zirul, our cleric, called upon the power of Iomedae. All the skeletons crumbled to dust in the shower of golden light that appeared all around us.

We now had the time to read the brass plaques above each door; North read Oubliette, East read Reaver’s Hold, South (from where we entered) read Nevermore, and West read Hell’s basement. We decided to carry on in a straight line and passed through the door marked Oubliette. Beyond the door we entered through was a short corridor with further doors at the far end and half way along the corridor on the left. Whilst I scouted forward towards the door at the far end of the corridor, Zef entered the room on the left. He pushed the door aside and entered the room. The room I found myself in was guarded by a drop down portcullis (still up) and inside was a circular grille over what looked like a deep pit in the centre of the room. A rope led from out of the pit and through the grille. The walls of the room were lined with metal cell doors. I checked the portcullis over for traps, and finding none proceeded to tap a spike into the door frame to stop the portcullis from dropping and trapping us within the room.

The Pit and the Lopper

Whilst banging in the spike with my hammer, I heard the sounds of combat come from the room Zef had entered. A blazing orange glow also came from the room. I got on with my job whilst my companions resolved the difficulties they came across in the side room. A sudden flash of golden light accompanied by prayers to Iomedae told me that their foe had been overcome. I had secured the portcullis by now and ventured into the room towards the pit in the floor; the oubliette named on the plaque above the door. As soon as I reached the grille, I dropped a stone over the side. It landed a short while later (indicating about a twenty foot drop) on something soft. I peered over the rim of the pit with torch in hand, but two massively long arms reached up, grabbed me, and pulled me through the grille. I wasn’t squeezed between the bars but was somehow transported through them without touching them. I was now face-to-face with a huge assailant with an enormous axe; the third of our evil prisoner ring leaders. I screamed out what I saw to my colleagues above and threw a vial of Holy Water at the apparition. This didn’t seem to have any effect and I was severely wounded by a blow from his axe.

Arsok suddenly appeared next to me in the pit with the silver axe we had found amongst the tools that should aid us in killing the five deadly prisoners. With great horror I saw some of my life’s blood leave my wounds and make its way towards the ghoul who had struck me. The surprise at seeing my blood leaving my wound allowed the ghoul to hit me again with his axe and I passed out with the pain and loss of blood.

I think some magic was cast by our cleric as I awoke again some moments later, only to see the Lopper spring up through the grate and into the room above. I found that my more serious wounds had closed with the application of the magic spell and I was able to participate more in the combat. Arsok, beside me, began casting a spell.

A few moments later, one of my wounds reopened and more blood flew towards the ghoul – he must have been healing himself on my life blood. The sounds of physical and magical combat continued on in the room above, with several magical beings being summoned by our mages. I could hear the priest of Iomedae constantly calling upon aid from his god and the room filled with the flashes and bangs of arcane and divine magic.

I managed to climb up the rope that was hanging into the pit through the grille, and luckily was able to just squeeze through the bars of the grille to get back into the room above. I noticed that the room was in complete turmoil as my head popped above the rim; flashes and bangs of magic reverberated around the room, arrows flew from Zef’s bow and summoned creatures howled their rage at the undead fiend. The ghoul had fought his way through my companions and had begun to retreat down the far corridor we had entered the room by, screaming in agony – something our priest threw his way had obviously caused him grief. It was then that I lost more blood to the Lopper. I looked down at my hand to see what I was carrying and noticed that I had somehow taken possession of the hand axe; Arsok must have passed it to me before the Lopper had leapt out of the oubliette. Angry that the fiend was using me and now some of my companions, who had also now been injured, to heal himself I threw the hand axe at him. My aim was off and I struck our cleric in the shoulder – luckily it had not been thrown too well and caused little damage through his armour.

All around me was chaos and magic, but my focus was only on getting the axe back. It felt so good to have in my hands. Whilst my companions carried on with their attacks on the Lopper, I managed to reclaim it from the other side of the room. During this time, the ghoul had spotted the last of us not injured at his hand and teleported back into the melee to attack our Elven mage. Moebius saw the fiend appear, but was able to create more images of himself to confuse it. This diversion of the fiend’s attention allowed me to sneak up behind him and strike with the axe. My first blow went wide due to the crush of bodies around me, but my second strike hit true, separating the fiend’s head from his body.

Return to Ravengro

We all sighed with relief now that the Lopper was finally vanquished. The conjurers dissipated their summoned creatures and we all checked over our wounds. We were sorely beaten and bruised, but otherwise OK. Zef quickly ran off to inspect the cells within the oubliette room but found they were all empty. He then went off to inspect the side room where they now told me they had fought a headless flaming skeleton. I slipped back through the grille and climbed back into the oubliette to check out the contents of the pile of rubbish on the floor at the bottom. I managed to find the Lopper’s bones and a skull, presumably that of the flaming skeleton, which I stuffed into a sack to take back to Father Grimburrow to dispose of. I also managed to pick up from the detritus a small amount of gold, a masterwork Heavy Crossbow, a masterwork Long Sword which I passed to our cleric, a magical mace which I gave to Zef, a Stone of Alarm which I passed to Moebius, and a bunch of keys.

After a brief discussion, we realised that we could not continue on in our current state; we all carried injuries and our spell casters were exhausted of all magicks, so we decided to return to the town for some rest and recuperation. However, that safe in the warden’s office called out to me once more, so we made a quick detour to the office and I tried the keys on the safe – no luck again. They must be on the warden’s body still, and none of the bodies we have found so far could have been the warden.

On our way back to Kendra’s house we called in on Father Grimburrow. I handed over the bones for him to dispose of and he in return healed our wounds. Zirul decided not to take him up on the offer, relying on his own deity to heal him instead. We mentioned all that we had achieved, and he seemed pleased. However, he said that the temple grounds required a bit of work doing on them (hinting that we needed to start paying for some of our post-combat treatment), so I passed him the small sack of gold much to my companions’ chagrin.

After we had bathed our wounds, repaired the rents in our armour, and replaced any missing weapons, we all headed out to the taverns to celebrate our latest escapades and introduce our two new companions to the townsfolk. My magic-using companions returned home early though and spent the rest of the evening studying their books; Moebius worked out the command word for the Stone of Alarm (Canis). Zef hadn’t joined us in the Laughing Demon, preferring the quieter pub he usually frequented. I stayed in the Demon and didn’t have to buy a drink all night! On our way home from the taverns (we both left our respective haunts at the same time; closing time!) we met up at the common, and noticed one of the trees was full of small black birds – whipper whorls or something Zef called them.

 

I mentioned this to our companions back at our hostel and was told that they were servants of Pharasma. They linger around the dead and dying. It was bad luck to kill one as you would be next to replace it! I wasn’t sure if this was an omen of good or ill fortune. Were they lingering around awaiting our deaths or were they back due to the release of souls we had been facilitating with our work in the prison?

The Carrion Crown - Session VIII

Session 8: The Dungeon of Harrowstone (9^th January 2013)

After a break of around a month, we finally got back round the table to finish up the current adventure module for the Carrion Crown. There is still probbaly another one or two sessions to go that will allow us time to clear out the last level(s) of the dungeon below Harrowstone prison. Unfortunately we lost one of our regular players but we did get the opportunity for three new ones to join us - the club had a big influx of new players seeking games this week. One was able to get his character (Zirul, the cleric) rolled up and so he joined us in the dying minutes of the game, but another was still busy rolling as we completed the session. That said, he was party to all that was going on and was filled in with all the background story so far. A third player was due to turn up but got called away at the last minute - however, he should be rolling up a character during the week in readiness for joining our little band of brave adventurers as we complete the first adventure module.

The Pathfinders

Moebius – Elf Conjurer

Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger
Zirul – Half-Elf Cleric

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 12 – morning)

Last night I had a good night’s sleep that helped me to fully recover from my wounds gained a couple of days ago. When I finally emerged from my bed I found that everyone else was up and had already broken their fasts. I was told by Moebius that Kazimir has left our company as he had other matters to attend to.

Zef and I quickly prepared ourselves and made our way to the hardware store to pick up a few items of equipment and to replenish our stocks of arrows and bolts. We met up again with Moebius on the road up to Harrowstone prison. Upon arrival at the outer walls we noticed that the level of noise here had abated since the last time we came. We stealthily passed through the gates and realised that we could no longer hear the rats in the watch tower. We investigated and found that they had completely gone! That meant one less thing for us to worry about; or was it a sign of something more dangerous arriving and scaring them away?

The Cold Room

We paid a quick visit to the warden’s room so that I could have another go at opening the safe. Unfortunately, even with the aid of my new set of Masterwork tools I was unable to do so. This was one tough lock.

We decided to head into the room that contained the ghost of the warden’s wife to see if she had any updates on the state of the prison for us. We found her floating several inches off the ground but looking a lot more solid than the last time we saw her. Upon asking her about the deathly quiet that we encountered on arriving at the prison, she mentioned that she was slowly regaining her strength and therefore control of the grounds. She confirmed that the two ghosts we slew a few days back were indeed truly gone but the other three still remained. We reiterated that we were going to help her clear out the dungeon level below, starting today.

We quickly said our goodbyes and headed towards the cold room and hopefully the entrance to the levels below. Zef was first through the door but the coldness wrapped its deadly embrace around him so that it slowed him considerably crossing the room. Once across he was able to easily open the door opposite. I crossed the room next, followed by Moebius, but neither of us was affected by the cold too much. We stepped through the door into a room that looked like it may have been an armoury and training room for the prison guards. We noticed that there was a large burnt area on the floor and a large hole descending to the depths below.

Descent into the Depths

Zef and I investigated the hole and realised from the light of our torches that it was around twenty feet deep. I sorted out my silken climbing rope, tied a few knots in it to aid the others climbing and made it fast against a secure beam across the room. Zef shimmied down rather rapidly and started to poke around in the debris in the room at the bottom of the hole.

There were several piles of junk and the remains of an elevator/lift contraption that most likely offered an easier way up and down between the levels. Poking around in the piles of junk though disturbed three more of those flaming skulls that we saw on the night of the Town Hall meeting. One flew directly at Zef but he managed to dodge its path. He then let fly with his arrows and downed one of the other two. Moebius launched one of his frosty spells at the other, but my crossbow bolt missed the mark. Quick as you like, Zef reloaded and shot down a second flaming skull whilst another of Moebius’ frost spells further slowed the remaining one. My second shot with the crossbow brought the final one down.

Moebius and I then proceeded to climb down the rope and join our comrade and took a better look around the room, which was remarkably free of dust. We spotted a partially hidden door at the far end of the room, so we made our way towards it. We had to cross a large puddle of water to get to the opening and just as we began to file through the opening we noticed that the surface of the water behind us began to ripple. Suddenly our ears were accosted by the sound of a thousand voices in torment and two frightful apparitions raised themselves from the water, dripping with malevolence and ectoplasm. Almost straight away, Moebius became enveloped by one of the beings and started screaming in pain as the ectoplasm began to eat away at his flesh. Zef was more than ready for the challenge and had loaded his bow and shot at the ghosts with two of the magical arrows we found in the tomb that the Professor had alluded to in his writings. The apparition not enveloping Moebius screamed and dissipated in a slosh of goo. I poured a vial of Holy Water over Moebius and his attacker, but Moebius was still unable to help himself. Another shot from Zef released the second ghost from its life of eternal torment.

A New Arrival

As we began to wash some of the ectoplasm from Moebius’clothes and equipment, we heard the sounds of movement coming from above. We saw a shape start to descend the rope behind us. I shouted for them to hold and the reply was a friendly greeting from a cleric of Iodemae who said he was here to help us in our quest. He explained that he too was a friend of Professor Lorimor but was held up in his travels and got here regrettably too late for his funeral. To prove his good faith he cast a healing spell over my two injured companions.

 

We all sighed with relief that we now had the aid of at least one of the gods on our side now and prepared ourselves to re-enter the partially blocked opening.

The Carrion Crown - Session VII

Session 7: Harrowstone (21^st November 2012)

The Pathfinders

Kazimir – Elf Fighter
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 10 – mid-day)

Upon opening the door we were struck as if by a wet cloth. The room was open to the elements, and the rain beat against us as we entered. The only feature left in this room was a huge furnace and its accompanying chimney; the rest had collapsed into the level below and the resulting chasm had filled with water forming the lake we had seen outside. I lit one of my small candles and looked up the chimney. I spotted nothing of interest but the rest of my companions mentioned that they could smell burning flesh. I quickly pulled my head out of the chimney but the smell didn’t dissipate. Moebius took a turn to look up the shaft but as soon as his head entered the space a ball of fire shot down towards him. He managed to back away without getting hurt.

Stirge Attack

As we had explored most of this level of the prison now, I decided to climb up the rubble and onto the roof to see what I could see, and match it up to the details I gained when I went up the stairs earlier. There were a whole bunch of rooms that we needed to explore. After looking around for a few minutes to get my bearings I heard the unmistakable buzz of stirge wings. Three of the critters were heading straight towards me. I rapidly made my way back to the party just as they crested the lip of the rubble wall we were standing beneath. Zef let fly with his arrows and two of them dropped. The third that approached me was quickly dispatched by my trusty rapier. I have to say that I really do not like these creepy crawlies.

We decided that it would be safer to get onto the roof via the inner stairwell, so we returned inside and made our way up to the first storey via the stone stairs. The landing opened out into an area containing a watch room with floor to ceiling bars and a whole bunch of cells. We checked many of the cells but all they contained were the skeletons of the previous inmates. We decided that we would ask for Father Grimburrow’s help in getting the corpses back to town for decent burial rather than attempt the feat ourselves. It was at this point we started to hear the sound of mournful pipe music and the flutter of more stirge wings. Moving on we passed through a kitchen and pantry area, but had to retrace our steps to find another way into the watch room. We found the way through via an adjoining room which contained the skeleton of a man wrapped in chains and draped in holy symbols.

The First Encounter with the Five

Moebius mentioned that this was most likely the body of one of the five dangerous criminals who had plotted the prison break; the preacher one. Kazimir poked the body to make sure it had no life in it. It didn’t, but the piping seemed to get louder and we still could not ascertain where it was coming from.

We took a quick look into the watch room and found that it could be used to observe the majority of the prison cells with the exception of a few round one corner. All the cells we looked in were occupied with skeletons much like those we had encountered earlier. We headed for the area we could not see from the observation room which happened to be another corridor full of cells. The piping got suddenly louder when we were halfway down the hall and when we least expected it, a number of skeletons burst from their cells into our midst.

Zef looked behind us and let fly a couple of arrows at a wraith like apparition that was stalking us from the rear (this was seemingly where the piping was coming from). Moebius and I were raked by the rank claws of the cadavers. Suddenly there were five images of Moebius amongst us but as soon as those images appeared, our fighter collapsed to the ground and proceeded to bleed profusely; the blood flowing towards the wraith-like spirit beyond Zef. Chains and holy symbols, the same as those on the corpse in the room beside the observation room, began to appear on Kazimir’s body but the fighter himself was unconscious.

During the melee, we all suffered a form of paralysis but were able to shake it off a few seconds later. Unfortunately, this led to most of us picking up wounds from the undead attacking us – Moebius’s doubles were taking the brunt of damage that was meant for him. After a short while, we heard the unmistakable whine of stirge wings and saw a couple approaching down the corridor towards us. It was at this point that I was unable to take any more and had to duck inside one of the cells to avoid being killed by the skeletons. As I popped into the cell, I heard a whoop from Moebius and Zef as the wraith winked out of existence and the music stopped – they had killed the Piper!

I quickly drank one of our healing potions and felt well enough to re-enter the fray. I burst out of the door, and put paid to one of the skeletons just as Zef skewered both of the stirges which were busy trying to suck the blood from our poor downed fighter. I threw some Holy Water onto the fighter’s body, and it seemed to help him as the chains that were wrapped around him slowed in their tightening. Moebius, meanwhile, summoned up some attack dogs and headed back to the holy symbol covered corpse in the room beside the observation chamber. Zef and I finished off the last skeleton.

Two down three to go

Moebius collected up the dog-savaged bones of the preacher and placed them into a sack, then rejoined us in the corridor. Kazimir came to and asked us what had happened. He had fallen into a trance and been told by an apparition that we had deserted him and that he should join with the preacher as we no longer cared for him. He had decided to refuse the offer and thus had begun to be set upon by chains and holy symbols.

We headed on up the corridor to the last couple of rooms. Neither of these were cells. The first contained a ladder and trapdoor in the ceiling that we could not open, and the second room contained a skeleton and a bone flute. We realised this was the Piper’s body, so we again scooped up the bones and placed them into another sack.

The Gnome

As I wanted to get to the roof to see what else was up there it was decided that I climbed up via the rubble and see if I could clear the obstruction above the trap door to allow the rest up. Again, I heard the unmistakable whine of stirge wings. I called up Zef, who promptly put arrows into them, whilst I began to pull fallen masonry from off of the trapdoor. With Kazimir pushing from below, we soon had the trap door open and the rest of the party clambered through and out onto the roof.

All we could see up there was a parapet and walkway in fairly good repair. We wandered around until we encountered a patch of carnivorous vine (identified by our ranger). Moebius soon had a little fire elemental get to work with burning it up. When the leaves had peeled away, we noticed the skeleton of a gnome beneath. Not knowing what he was doing up there, and not wanting to hang around as the light was beginning to fade, we quickly searched the body and found a few gold (24) and platinum (3) coins along with a little signet ring. We headed on back downstairs and headed towards the room with the warden’s wife’s ghost.

The Blue Lady

When we went into her chamber we heard her crying, but this time in joy. When we asked her about the two criminals, she told us that they were definitely dead. We told her what we had done and what we still intended to do and she thanked us in a most heart felt way.

With the light fading from the skies, we headed back to town and into Father Grimburrow’s garden. He was weeding and cursing his acolytes for being a lazy bunch and not knowing their aspidistras from their rhododendrons or some such. We interrupted his reverie and cursing to give him our news.

Father Grimburrow performed a couple of rites on the skeletons and we saw the ghosts of the prisoners rise from the bodies and evaporate with silent screams of anguish on their faces. He told us that the ordeal was over concerning these two.

He then proceeded to heal us of our combat wounds and mentioned that he would send his lazy acolytes up the hill to the prison tomorrow to pick up the rest of the skeletons for a decent burial whilst we carried on our investigations of the ground floor (we still had to get into the strong room and cold room, as well as open the safe in the calm room).

The Gazebo (Day 10 - Late evening)

We were awoken again later that evening by the sheriff; there was a large letter ‘S’ daubed onto the town’s gazebo. This is the third letter in the warden’s wife’s name. Luckily she has quite a long name, giving us plenty of time in which to finish our investigations at the prison on the hill.

The Strong Room (Day 11)

Feeling a little worse for wear and still carrying a weakness from the stirge bites I could not be raised from my bed. Zef decided to stay with me during the day to help me heal whilst Moebius and Kazimir returned to the prison with the acolytes of Pharasma. They all returned about an hour or so later with the contents of the room.

Contained within a small safe there were indeed items that looked like they would be useful in fighting the five (a smith’s hammer, a silver flute, a spell book, a collection of holy symbols and a blood-stained item). There were also more items that would help us against their minions and furthering our adventures (a set of Master Thieves’ Tools, a silver hairclip, some throwing stars, a silver war razor, a wand of Lesser Restoration and a few other items).

 

We spent the rest of the day looking over the items; trying to identify them and their uses. The skeletons from the upper storey had been cleared out by the acolytes, but the cold room and safe in the calm room still needed to be investigated. Perhaps we will do that on the morrow when we are all recovered from our wounds?

The Carrion Crown - Part 6

Session 6: Harrowstone (7^th November 2012)

The Pathfinders

Kazimir – Elf Fighter
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Tomas – Cleric (absent)
Zef – Human Ranger

(Note to Matt – 1250 Xp was awarded this week)

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 9 – afternoon)

We left Tomas in the chapel of Pharasma to carry on re-sanctifying it. The rest of us headed towards the end of the corridor after a brief spot of lunch to keep up our flagging energy levels. The room beyond the door was triangular in shape and appeared to all intents and purposes to be a branding room. Scattered over the floor were a multitude of branding irons with hand etched serial numbers, and a large brazier turned upon its side. We (Kazimir, Moebius and I) began to poke around the debris with our boots until Moebius and I started to smell burning flesh. When we looked up and mentioned this to Zef, four of the iron rods lifted from the floor. The tips of the brands started to glow red hot. I knew Tomas had a bucket of water on the go to aid in his cleaning of the chapel, so I swiftly ran to grab it. In the meantime, all I could hear were incantations, and grunts and cries of pain emanating from the room until my return. It appeared that the situation was under control when I returned just a few seconds later, but both Zef and Moebius had been badly burned by the branding rods. As soon as they saw the bucket of water they thrust the rods into it, quenching the fire upon them immediately.

Just as the last hisses of steam were dissipating, we noticed that Kazimir had joined us – Kendra had got sick of him moping around the place and she requested that he go join his companions and earn his keep. He mentioned that he had passed Tomas going in the other direction on his way up to the prison, and said that Kendra needed a new bodyguard whilst he was away, but the cleric was rather uncommunicative an donly grunted in response.

The Warden’s Wife

We collected our wits and moved out of the branding room to the next door along the wall. This door popped open with the minimum of effort from Kazimir and we all entered. We could see a room full of sewing paraphernalia and the skeleton of someone at the far end of the room. I also happened to notice a door to the right of us hidden behind a few drapes that partially obscured it. Before we could investigate further, an apparition appeared before us. The blue woman wept continuously, but managed to ask us if we were the new guards. We answered in the negative but mentioned that we were here to cleanse the prison of evil. We managed to question the shade of the prison warden’s wife further for the following information…

• There are five items in the lock-up that can be used against the five most evil prisoners; those that Moebius had garnered the names of earlier
• She declared that she is the new warden now that her husband is dead, but her time is limited
• The Whispering Way cultists arrived and set about casting a ritual
• They murdered the professor and wrote the incantation around the prison that we saw on the way in
• The Splatter Man is daubing the statue in town – when her name is spelt out, she will cease to exist and the five prisoners will be free to leave the prison
• The cultist’s leader is a thin grey-skinned humanoid with a bone breast plate, and a dark staff with a gagged skull upon it

We thanked her for her aid and advice and made our way through the semi-secret portal I had spotted earlier, perhaps there were more secrets to be found through here we thought at the time, or why else try to conceal the door?

The Laundry Room

The next chamber revealed itself as a laundry room; clothing and linen was scattered all over the floor and a constantly running drain led to the cess pit we had noticed outside earlier.

I began to prod around the piles of linen with my rapier until the clothing started to move of its own volition. I jumped back in fright as an animated leather strait jacket arose from the laundry pile. Zef managed to grab hold of the jerkin whilst Kazimir and I proceeded to rip it to shreds using our swords; the remnants being finished off with one of Moebius’ rays of acid.

Luckily no-one was hurt in this encounter, although Zef did get embraced by the jacket at one point. Zef and Moebius were still nursing severe burns from those branding irons, so it was a good thing that this animated item was put down so quickly.

Other than the iron door situated way back past the vestibule, we only had one more door to search behind on the ground level of the prison. As it was getting late, we decided to try the door and then head back for some well earned rest, and to try to get those injured tended to.

The Poltergeist

As soon as the door to this room opened we were faced with a haunting apparition. I tried to throw some Holy Water at it, but its fearsome visage made me drop the missile in fright. At this point, the ghostly apparition let out the most horrendous scream which caused Zef and me to immediately take flight in fear of our souls, closely followed by Kazimir. A rather shocked Moebius then brought up the rear, muttering something about who was supposed to the brave ones.

Our fear had run its course by the time we got back to the vestibule, so we stopped to take stock of our position. None of us were harmed and the ghost had decided not to follow us. Looking out of the door we noticed that the evening was drawing in, so we decided to call it a day. I just made a quick detour to the steel door to check out its lock. It looked way beyond my skill to attempt to unpick.

Gibbs Strikes Back (Day 9 – early evening)

We headed back to town; Kazimir and I visited the statue, and Zef and Moebius went via Father Grimburrow’s office to see if he could alleviate their suffering with a bit of ecclesiastical jiggery-pokery. He healed the worst of their wounds, but at the cost of them both attending service the following morning. Moebius was not too happy as he had things he wanted to study, but Zef was beginning to like this god Pharasma; she and the ranger have a lot of things in common. I see a full blown conversion coming on with him.

Kazimir and I set up watch on the statue, me near to it with the horn at hand, and Kazimir close by to give heavy support if needed. Towards the end of my shift, I spotted a person in nightgown and sleeping hat approach the statue with a struggling dog in one hand and a rather large razor in the other. I aimed up with my trusty crossbow and let loose just as the perpetrator was about to start his grizzly ritual by slitting the dog’s throat. The quarrel flew true and stuck fast in the man’s shoulder causing him to drop the dog, which ran off yelping. I blew on the horn, to summon Kazimir to my side. He proceeded to swipe the villain off of his feet with the handle of his glaive, but before he could deliver a coup de grace I stopped him and cautioned it may be best to take the dauber alive. Kazimir delivered a very well aimed blow that knocked the person senseless. When we discovered who it was, we were shocked to find out the night prowler was none other than Gibbs; Zef’s mortal enemy.

A second wind of the horn brought forth the townsfolk from the Laughing Demon. Amongst them was the sheriff who, seeing the situation for what it was proceeded to arrest Gibbs and drag him off to the gaol.

The Ouija Board (Day 10)

We rested up for the rest of the night, all of us having a good sleep, and awoke early. Zef and Moebius headed off to the 6 o’clock service whilst Kazimir and I paid a visit to the sheriff’s office. We didn’t manage to get much out of Gibbs other than he was ‘sleepwalking’.

The sheriff was to head off to Gibbs’ house to see what he could find so we asked to accompany him. He agreed to this and on our way we bumped into the others. We all arrived at Gibbs’ house and entered his main living room where we saw a message daubed in rabbits’ blood on the wall (we know it was rabbit’s blood because of the two tiny corpses left lying in the middle of the floor. The message stated, “You shall not prevent our escape”.

Zef wanted to get to the bottom of this now by any means possible, so he produced the ouija board he had been carrying around with him since breakfast. He set it up, placed his fingers on the main mat and promptly stood up. He made for the rabbits, put his fingers into the blood and began to daub a fresh message on the wall, “The woman will die again”. He then returned to his seated position and came back to himself.

Wondering if there was some other kind of spirit channel in the room, Moebius cast a small spell and realised there was a faint emanation of magic coming from a water skin that was once filled with blood (we could see the dried stains of it around the mouth of the skin).

We all made our excuses then and left the sheriff to his investigations; Zef and I popped off to see Father Grimburrow on how to use those Haunt Siphons, and Moebius and Kazimir went to the Unfurled Scroll to purchase a Knock spell scroll. We managed to get Father to empty one siphon for us with the promise of returning another soul for him to send on its way to Pharasma. We agreed and met up with the others on the road leading to the prison.

Back to the Poltergeist

We made our way straight back to the room containing the phantasm that frightened us so much the day before. We prepared ourselves and burst into the room. One of the ways in which souls could enter the siphon was through persuasion (the other being that it needed to be subdued sufficiently by force or hemmed in by a circle of salt to want respite from its suffering). I tried to reason with the ghost but my well rehearsed oration was drowned out by another soul wrenching scream.

This time we all ran except for Zef, who had decided he would not run from the undead ever again. After running for quite a distance, we came to a halt and realised that our companion was not with us. We headed back into the prison complex expecting to find him dead or worse, only to find him grinning from ear to ear. He had loaded his bow with one of the magical arrows and let fly. The apparition had just exploded when the arrow struck returning the tormented soul back to whichever hell it had come from.

As it had taken us a while to get back to our compatriot, Zef had had time to search the room, where he found the following items…

• 2 Healing kits
• 3 vials of anti-toxin
• 2 vials of anti-plague
• 3 vials of blood block
• 3 vials of smelling salts
• 4 potions of Cure Light Wounds

After we had got over the excitement of seeing our trusty ranger alive and well, and bearing gifts, we noticed one last door in the room. We stepped towards it …

The Carrion Crown Part V

Session 5: Harrowstone (24^th October 2012)

I think I had better put a disclaimer in here - this write up contains spoilers for anyone who wishes to partake in this adventure. Please only read this if you do not wish to become a player in this adventure path as it will spoil your enjoyment.

The Pathfinders

Kazimir – Elf Fighter (absent)
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Tomas – Cleric
Zef – Human Ranger

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 8 – late afternoon)

Running from the creatures from beyond the grave has left me feeling rather foolish. After suffering from two near-death experiences I am finding I am becoming more and more nervous around strange creatures and beings that want to do us harm, especially giant sized creepy crawlies that offer poisonous bites and stings. I do not want to let my companions down but I am feeling increasingly cowardly when faced with such antagonists. I just hope that my other skills will allow me to keep such brave and trustworthy companions at my side whilst we delve into the mysteries surrounding Harrowstone and the town of Ravengro.

I made my way back to Kendra’s house after the fright I’d had with the skeletons. My more belligerent companions were able to easily overcome the walking dead; Zef felled two with his deft bow-work and Kazimir brought down the other with his glaive. To calm all of our nerves and to catch up with events all round, we decided to head to the Laughing Demon. However, on the way, I thought it may be prudent to take up my position as look-out in case the statue desecrators returned, so I headed off into that part of town.

Zef and Moebius made it to the tavern, but Kazimir decided to stay put and look after Kendra just in case any harm befell her. What with that Gibbs fellow pushing his weight around and causing a couple of scenes, it seemed like a good idea. Whilst at the tavern, an acolyte of Pharasma, and another true friend of the professor turned up. He is named Tomas. I got to meet him on my return to the tavern at around 9:15. In the meantime, Moebius and Zef had brought him up to date with the entire goings on. Tomas told us that he would have made it earlier if it wasn’t for his caravan being delayed by the dreadful weather. Anyway, it is good to have another cleric in our party after Dukker had to return to his temple a few days ago. We now number five, which is a goodly  number of investigators, but I myself would feel safer if we had perhaps another who could wield a sword with more gusto than Moebius and I (although Moebius is rather handy with those magical incantations of his).

It was Zef that relieved me from watching the statue and he also made it his task to set a few footprint traps, just to see if we could capture some tracks from the perpetrators of the violation. We left the tavern around midnight, collected Zef upon the way and headed to our beds.

The Prison Ruins (Day 9)

I awoke quite early and proceeded to run through my stretching routines. I felt pretty good actually; fully recovered from my bruising experiences. We decided to head on up to the prison to reconnoitre, again Kazimir elected to stay with Kendra (probably because he thought that maybe there would be no fighting involved). We diverted our path via the statue to check out Zef’s footprint traps, but the only tracks we saw there were for small nocturnal animals. Moebius quickly called in at the Unfurling Scroll to pick up a scroll that contained some Warding or Alarm spell.

We got to the ruins atop the hill quite quickly and in good spirits despite the newly arrived clouds and subsequent downpour. Nothing appeared different, but Tomas decided he wanted to see the runes around the prison building for himself. He noted that it seemed to be part of a ritual, but what kind of ritual he could not say. He cast a few more spells and made it known that the place was heavily under the influence of the undead; there were many signals given off, mainly below our feet and below the prison building. Moebius tied his mule up just outside the main entrance.

The Office Block

Zef and I headed to the main door of the building and took a peek inside. Beyond the fallen doors was a vestibule that measured around 10’ by 10’. Many doors led off from it. We decided to pick the first one on the left hand side and Zef put his boot to it. On the other side was a long corridor, ending in a door, with doors all along the right hand wall. All of the doors down the corridor seemed to contain offices full of paperwork. Moebius wanted to grab as much as possible for future reference, but we said that we would grab them for him on the way out. We proceeded to the end of the corridor, where we noticed that there were in fact two doors, the second obscured as it was around a corner we could not see from the other end. As we opened the first door, all the rest of the office doors behind us slammed shut in turn; none could be opened when we tried them. The door that we had just opened revealed a sanctum of calm, and a safe which was unfortunately beyond my skills to open (there had to be a key around somewhere). We left the calming effect of the room and entered the other door next to this one that we hadn’t spotted when we first entered the corridor. This, however, only revealed a latrine.

Perplexed by this turn of events, we returned to the door we entered the corridor by. Zef and I were ahead, whilst Moebius, sensing a loss of clues held within the paperwork, with Tomas looking out for him, tried to open the office doors. Zef kicked open the first door on the right within the vestibule. This caused the door opposite to slam shut, closing Moebius and Tomas within. As the door shut, a burning head thrust through the door making us jump out of our skins. It rapidly retreated back into the door however. We then heard three raps on the door and Tomas’s voice calling that they were OK and did we see anything come through the door? Zef and I replied that we had spotted the same as the others. To reunite the party, Zef tried to cut through the rotten wooden door, but as his sword bit into the wood, it stuck fast and he could not remove it. Tomas worked out that this was a simple Hold Portal spell, and that it would dissipate soon. True enough, the sword eventually came free and upon rechecking, the office doors became unlocked again. Moebius, not wanting to lose his paperwork, asked for time to move it from the offices into the calm room. Zef and I agreed and used that time to remove the door that was held from its hinges so that it would not block our escape in future.

The Cold Auditorium

The doors on the right hand side of the vestibule didn’t really present us with too many problems. The first door opened up to a short corridor ending in a locked solid metal door at the other end.

The second door opened into an auditorium with many benches inside and a grille at the far end behind which we assumed the prisoners were held whilst being questioned. Zef entered and felt the temperature suddenly drop. Icicles began to form on the furniture as soon as he entered the room. He got out of their quickly sensing it was not a nice place to be. As the others were still unloading the paperwork, I decided to kill the time by removing the door to this room too.

The last door from the vestibule

We did not really want to leave any of the doors unexplored, but we decided that the metal door could be left for a time whilst we explored the rest of this level of the prison building. We popped open the last door of the vestibule (the one opposite the main entrance door) to reveal another corridor with doors down the right hand side. The first door led down some stairs a little way before becoming choked with collapsed masonry (possibly an effect of the collapse the Warden caused all those years ago?). The second door opened onto some steps leading upwards. I carefully made my way up the wooden stairs and could make out in the gloom of the collapsed ceiling that there were several rooms up there. We decided to come back to explore these as the upper storey did not look like it could take the combined weight of our party. The third door revealed a small cupboard filled with cleaning equipment.

Giant Spiders

Making our way back to the beginning of the corridor again, we opened the first door on the left. This revealed corridors leading off in a couple of directions and several other doors. The first side door we came to revealed a collapse door leading into a room full of cobwebs. I didn’t like the look of this so edged backwards a bit. Tomas strode straight in and was instantly pounced upon by three huge spiders, each with an abdomen the size of a large pumpkin, and fangs dripping with venom. Tomas staggered back under the onslaught which gave Zef enough room to shoot one of the spiders a couple of times. Moebius cast his acid spell, but it just bounced harmlessly off the wall. Whilst the ranger and cleric busied themselves with two of the spiders, the injured third one made its way towards Moebius and me. Moebius cast his bright light spell and all of the arachnids were suddenly dazed. Zef and Tomas easily finished off their opponents but it took me quite a while to destroy the third with my rapier.

Tomas recognised the room as a small temple to Pharasma, so he set about cleaning it up. Moebius helped him with a few cantrips and the brooms and mops from the store room back in the previous corridor. Inside a small wooden cabinet Tomas found a few potions of healing, a wand of healing (which he kept himself) and a scroll which he passed to Moebius. This went some way towards stopping the sorceror griping about not being able to study the papers from the offices.

Manacles

Whilst the other two of our party tidied up the small temple to Pharasma, Zef and I went to try another of the doors. The one opposite led into what looked like a torture chamber; manacles, ropes and chains littered the floor. Zef strode into to see what he could find but upon entering, a pair of manacles rose into the air and darted towards him. One cuff managed to grasp onto Zef’s wrist and lock shut. Zef grabbed the other cuff with his free hand and backed out of the room.

We went back into the small temple to see if Moebius could open them after my lock picking skills were found to be useless as there were no locks on them! Acid seemed to roll off of the rusting metal clasps, but a vial of Holy water saw the manacles sizzle and drop to the floor.

We decided to return to the induction chamber to take another look but all we could find this time were more rusting manacles. Luckily none of them came to life when we entered the room this time.

The Carrion Crown Part 4

Session 4: The Professor Returns (17^th October 2012)

The Pathfinders

Kazimir – Elf Fighter
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 6 – mid-morning)

The stirges and centipedes have left me really wobbly on my legs. I still needed to rest up, so much of the next few days I spent resting up whilst the others work on this mystery. As I have previously noted in my diary, our meals with Kendra are becoming increasingly bland. I am sure she doesn’t want us around, but I am unsure as to why when her father put her into our care for at least the next month.

Anyway, on with our tale... The rest of the party visited Father Grimburrow to find out what those vials contain. He mentioned they were something called Haunt Siphons; receptacles for spirits that can be used for combating the undead. When the vial breaks, the spirit contained within will attack the closest being to it upon its release.

Kazimir paid a visit on Zokar to see if he could get something from the rumour I told him about from my last visit there. He was invited out back to watch the preparation of his meal, but nothing untoward could be found out. He proceeded to eat his fill. Meanwhile, Moebius had visited the Unfurled Scroll and found out some more useful information…

1. Harrowstone Prison was built in 4594
2. Ravengrow was founded at the same time as the prison, in order to supply it
3. The fire killed all the prisoners, many guards and the warden’s wife
4. A statue was built a month or two later, honouring the dead
5. The prisoners had revolted and taken control of the lower dungeon. The warden and 23 guards prevented them from escaping
6. Five of the prisoners in particular we re notorious for some reason
7. The warden, prisoners and guards were all trapped inside when the fire broke out

‘E’ for…? (Later that evening)

Whilst we were preparing for bed, we got a slow knock at the door. Sheriff Benjen was at the door and he told us that it had happened again. We accompanied him to the scene of the crime but noticed this time that the letter daubed on the statue was an ‘E’. We found no other clues other than the usual footprints and that the blood used was found to be animal blood (but which species we do not know). I put my thoughts into motion on these meagre clues but the only connection I could come up with was that ‘V’ and ‘E’ were the first two letters of the warden’s wife’s name: Vesorinna Hawken. I am not sure if that helped anyone but it made sense to me when the children’s rhyme was added into the mix.

The Professor Returns (Around Midnight)

We returned to Kendra’s and I headed off to bed due to the lateness of the hour and the need to still recover from the centipede and stirge bites. Around midnight, there came another slow knock at the door. Luckily Kazimir and Moebius were still up so they prepared to open the door, not knowing what to expect this time. Upon opening the door they came face-to-face with Professor Lorrimor! The zombie called for Kendra and struck out at Kazimir. The fighter made no hesitation in cleaving the body in twain. The fighter picked up the again dead pieces of the professor and deposited them within a rolled up carpet from the hallway. Moebius used a few of his little cantrips to clean up the mess, whilst Kazimir took the body and hid it in the wood pile for further investigation the next morning.

Another Encounter with Gibbs (Day 7)

We awoke early to yet another knock on the door. The incessant rapping annoyed us all, and upon seeing Gibbs’ face Zef had to be held back (Gibbs, if I recall was the townsman who assaulted Zef when we were carrying the professor’s coffin to his grave). Anyway, Gibbs ranted on that the professor had risen and it was our entire fault for not allowing them to bury him outside of town. Zef had had enough and thumped him; we did not stop him this time. Gibbs left rather promptly. It was at this point that the missing hall carpet caused Kendra to question our movements the night before. Some quick thinking bought us the cover story that it was all Kazimir’s fault for drinking too much. We promised to clean the carpet and return it to its rightful place.

This encounter with Gibbs spurred us into swift action. We loaded the professor’s body onto Moebius’s mule (which didn’t like it that much until Zef calmed it down with some well-chosen words and platitudes) and took it up to Father Grimburrow. He took the body off our hands and proceeded to rebury it in the same style as the farmer from the day before.

Fire at the Town Hall (Evening)

Due to all of this commotion we had forgotten about the meeting at the Town Hall that evening until reminded by the cleric. As there was a lot that needed investigating we decided to split up. The rest of my companions decided to head to the meeting to see what it was all about, whilst I cried off ‘sick’ and went down to the statue to stake out the area in case the perpetrator of the nightly daubing came back. I took Kazimir’s horn with me for an alarm in case I got into difficulties.

As the evening wore on, I got slowly more bored and cold. After an hour or so, I spotted three flaming objects leave the prison area and head towards the Town Hall. At around the same time, I heard a commotion going on up there. Not sure if that was just the general goings on from a town meeting I decided not to investigate that but the appearance of those flaming skulls made my mind up. I winded the horn just as the shouts from the hall turned to screams. I decided to leave my place of observation and sprinted up to the Town Hall. I got there just as the last of the fire was being extinguished. Moebius told me that the three flaming skulls came crashing through the windows a short time after all the torches in the building suddenly flared up. No cause was found but the townsfolk treated us like heroes and called for us to be the investigators into the mysteries surrounding the common undead appearances, even offering to pay us a reward! All were happy enough to collect us all together and drive us into the Laughing Demon to ply us with more drink than we could handle.

The Investigation Begins Proper (Day 8)

After another thin breakfast I decided enough was enough and popped out to the baker’s to buy us a proper meal. Moebius had plenty of reading to do, so the three of us (Zef, Kazimir and I) headed on up to the prison under the true guise of investigators. The walls were actually in a worse state of repair than I recalled from my last visit. The towers were all empty except for the one containing the swarm of rats which we decided to leave well alone.

The manor house at the centre of the grounds was in an even worse state of repair. One of the walls collapsed when Kazimir poked it with his glaive, and the first floor balconies looked as if they would do the same if we tried to climb onto them. Anyway, we managed to find some inscriptions around the base of the wall that repeatedly spelled out ‘LYVAR HAWKRAN’ – presumably the name of the warden. Around the back of the building we could only find the remains of the prison cess pit, which we decided not to investigate further. Poking our heads inside the open main doors showed us a large chamber but nothing in there of any note that we could see through the gloom.

We decided to head back to town, but wanted to take another look at the lake on the way. Kazimir decided my small stone probably wouldn’t have had any effect, so proceeded to lob in a fairly hefty boulder. Nothing happened to begin with, so we started to walk away. A few seconds later, the water started to bubble up and three skeletons started to emerge from the depths of the pool.

 

This scared me so much I was physically ill and I got out of there quickly, leaving my companions to their fate.

The Carrion Crown - Part 3

Session 3: Stirges and Zombies (10^th October 2012)

The Pathfinders

Dukker Jamas – Human Cleric (Player has become DM)
Kazimir – Elf Fighter (Not present)
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys (Day 4 – continued)

I am still feeling rather poorly as a result of the bite from that centipede. I think it will still take a few days to get all of the poison from my system. Dukker has been working tirelessly to help both myself and Zef to recover from our ordeal.

This evening was quiet as Zef and I rested up, which meant that Moebius was able to investigate the mystery further. He was not able to find out too much more, but he did deduce that the locals do not like speaking of the events of 4661; the burning down of the prison.

Stirge Attack (Day 5)

For once, the day dawned bright and sunny. Sometime during the very early hours, Dukker had decided to leave us – apparently he had been called back to his home temple for some urgent reason. After taking a leisurely breakfast (gruel again), Zef, Moebius and I left Kazimir in charge of Kendra and headed into town. As we were passing the gazebo in the centre of town, we heard a folk band playing a few tunes. We decided to stop and have a listen, as well as get a feel for what the folk around here did for entertainment.

Out of the corner of his eye, Moebius spotted a couple of stirges flapping towards us rapidly. He yelled a warning, but they got to us so quickly that one was able to attach itself to my shoulder before I could react. The only thing I could do was throw myself to the ground with the parasite between me and the solid earth. Everything then happened quickly. Whilst I struggled with the stirge attached to my shoulder, Zef had rapidly approached me and grabbed my dagger from my belt. Moebius yelled at me to close my eyes, but the next thing I knew I was waking up with a splitting headache, no vision, and feeling quite nauseous. Apparently, I had trapped the stirge beneath me, but not stopped it from sucking my blood. Zef tried to stab it with my knife before Moebius cast some bright light spell that dazed everything within a few feet of me – luckily this included the two stirges which were summarily dispatched. Unfortunately, being caught in the spell led to me feeling like the morning after the night before.

I actually awoke in the Laughing Demon being plied with drink and being hugged and back slapped by the locals for saving them from the flying horrors. Whilst this was going on, I managed to grab a morsel of information about the proprietor, Zokar, and his food. According to my now unknown source, anyone who is taken out back and watches him prepare his Zombie Chowder runs out of town screaming never to be seen again. When asked if I wanted anything to eat, I politely declined.

After all of our nerves were sufficiently steeled by alcohol and praise, we decided to investigate the prison on the hill. Zef, Moebius and I headed on up the path to the ruins sat atop the mound. The walls surrounding the prison seemed to be in reasonable shape but are broken down in places and covered in ivy, and the path approaching it was overgrown and looked like it had not been regularly used in a long time. We entered the grounds through a hole in the walls. Looking across the courtyard we could see that the gates swinging in the breeze were made of wood and metal. On both sides of the gates there are two strong towers, and there are a few other towers along the walls. The one on the western wall appeared to be full of rats; we’ll avoid that for now.

We took a look at the lake that seems to have formed at one end of the enclosure. It is dark and dreary without any wildlife present around it. From a distance I lobbed a stone into the water, but it sank without more than a less than unusual plonk and splash. No birds flew from the reeds which makes me think something may be keeping them away. For now, I did not wish to investigate further. We decided that we had seen enough and returned to town.

Zombie attack

Zef retired to the more quiet of the two pubs we knew, whilst Moebius and I went to Zokar’s place for a bite to eat and a few beers. We chatted to the locals, who seem to becoming more accustomed to us being around, and generally passed the rest of the afternoon and evening there. I only popped out for a brief breath of fresh air, but wound up in the local trading establishment. I didn’t get much information out of the proprietor or his wife but they did ask me to make an offer on a suit of masterwork plate mail whilst I purchased some adventuring kit. I mentioned that I didn’t know much about armour, but a friend of mine might be interested in just such an item.

When I returned, Moebius had got side tracked into talking about music with one of the musicians from the gazebo earlier today. He did, however, manage to find out that if we tried to go to the prison, the ghost of the warden’s wife will drive us away.

We left at a reasonable time and made our way back to Kendra’s house. On our way home, we noticed a person being sick down a side alley. Moebius and I went to investigate and see if the chap was alright, but the overpowering stench of the grave assaulted our nostrils. We tried to back up and get away from the now obvious zombie but it moved very quickly. It slammed me against the wall a couple of times, my head striking the wall on both occasions, and I woke up back at the pub again.

Again, Moebius had saved my life with magic. This time he had summoned a great mastiff to deal with the walking corpse. The villagers, again, were thanking us for saving them from the horrors assaulting this town and plied us with more food, drink and hearty congratulations. I found out that the local cleric had healed me – I was slipping towards death when I was found – and my companions and I were required to attend church the next day as we were now considered part of the congregation of Pharasma. We were also able to find out that the zombie was a local farmer who was buried three months ago.

The Crypt (Day 6)

As a party, we attended the short service in the morning. Afterwards, we approached Father Grimburrow to ask him about the stirges and zombie. He informed us that they get a ‘riser’ a couple of times a year, but the one last night had been the first one in a while. He was a little surprised when we told him how fast it moved. I think our activities over the last few hours had convinced the good Father that the town needed somebody to investigate the goings-on in the town, so he gave us his blessing to go to the crypt to recover the items that Professor Lorrimor had mentioned in his missives. We made our excuses and left, but on our way out of the graveyard we noticed that the acolytes were reburying the farmer’s corpse in a few more pieces than we left him, a few of the bits were held back to be buried elsewhere.

We were accompanied to the crypt by an acolyte; presumably to make sure we were good for our word and didn’t desecrate it. We were let in by one of the acolytes already in attendance, and were led down the first flight of steps by torchlight. I recovered my mirror and crossbow and a little later Zef recovered his bow. Upon entering the rear corridor, we again heard the snickering of the centipede, but Zef and Moebius made short work of it this time, now that it could be seen in the torchlight. Zef did pick up a nasty bite in the process, but not bad enough to stop us from searching the lower crypt and the sarcophagus upon the dais. We found many trinkets within brown Hessian sacks. I didn’t reckon much on the stuff in there as it only seemed to comprise a load of arrows, a Ouija Board (that Moebius later told us was magical), a manual of some sort, a few healing potions, a scroll, and some vials within a box – apparently they contain the spirits of something or other and are useful for fighting the undead.

The Carrion Crown Part 2

Session 2: The Crypt (3^rd October 2012)

The Pathfinders

Dukker Jamas – Human Cleric
Kazimir - Fighter
Moebius – Elf Conjurer
Nicolai Alamrys – Human Rogue
Zef – Human Ranger

From the Diary of Nicolai Alamrys

It seems, what with all the grief and confusion brought about by the death of our beloved friend Professor Lorimar, I may have got some details of the last few days a little muddled. The settlement we are staying in is called Ravenrow or some such thing, and Harrowstone is the name of the prison sat atop the hill just outside the township.

The Diary of Professor Lorimar (Day 2 – continued)

The rain was still beating down outside the window, so we decided that we would all sit tight and talk about the day’s findings from the professor’s diary/notebook. The diary entries, as stated in my previous entry, were a bit confusing, but the details we could ascertain by piecing together the written notes was that the Whispering Way was known of about ten years ago by the professor. He had investigated the cult and had started to come to some conclusions but, alas, was unable to complete his investigations. He did, however, leave us plenty of clues as to what we could do to carry on his work. The entry from 18 days ago suggested that he went up to Harrowstone, the prison on the hill that was burnt down several years ago, but he had to leave pretty sharply as he encountered strange ghostly apparitions whilst there. His final entry, the one from 17 days ago, only mentioned that there were tools, of which the current clergy were unaware, located within the graveyard, inside a certain crypt at the crossroads of the two main cemetery thoroughfares (Eversleep and Blackpath), that could be used to fight the undead.

Seeing this as a perfect opportunity for adventure, and as it was now getting late (around 9:30 in the evening) Zef and I decided to investigate whilst the others attempted to figure out what was happening. Moebius and Dukker locked themselves in conversation over the professor’s tomes that were in his lock box, and Kazimir mooned around Kendra, pledging his sword and so forth, possibly in the hope of gaining the lady’s favour?

The Crypt

So, whilst the rest of the party were otherwise engaged, Zef and I popped out in the hope of at least finding this crypt. It was still raining so visibility was poor, and as a result we bumped into one of the sheriff’s underlings. After a bit of sweet talking that seemed to leave the deputy in a state of confusion, we promised we would be back within the hour. He was OK with this, and he let us continue with our journey to the graveyard. We quickly hopped over the greasy wall and alighted in the thick mud of the cemetery. Quickly gathering our bearings we made our way to the meeting of the paths and set off towards the crypt in the north-west corner.

At the allotted point, we managed to find four mausoleums; three were undoubtedly family plots, but the fourth one was kind of weird, with stone gargoyles positioned to loom over any who approached. This did not put us off, so we took a quick look at the lock on the main stone door. The lock literally fell off the door when I touched it, and upon further investigation I realised that the clasp had been eaten through by acid and then hastily clicked together to give the appearance of a fixed security device.

Zef pushed the door open, and we stepped into the black interior, nearly losing our footing at the head of a flight of stairs leading down into the abyss. I lit a couple of small candles I had about my person and set one of them at the top of the stairs with my steel mirror behind it to light as much of the stairway as possible. We could see down about twenty feet before the gloom cut off our vision.

Zef knocked an arrow to his bow and I put a bolt into my crossbow before we continued down the stairs, Zef in front with me behind carrying the candle. At the bottom of the flight of stone steps we stepped onto a hard packed earthen floor. Holding the candle up and walking around a little we realised we were inside a large chamber (about thirty by forty feet at a guess). Upon the floor was incised a large mystical diagram and to each side of it were a pair of stone gargoyles that made us jump out of our skins when the dim light from our candle revealed them in the gloom. Zef checked out the statue to the right of us but it looked and felt just like a plain stone carving. Upon reaching the centre of the room, we realised that there were two identical stone doors in the opposite wall.

We made our way over to the one nearest to Zef and he tried the handle. With a grind of stone-upon-stone and a large squeal of metal hinges unused in a long time, the door opened. Thrusting my head through the doorway, I noticed that it seemed to lead to a corridor that linked the two stone doors of our room, with a stairwell in the centre of the opposite wall. Zef was starting to get a little wary now, but I waved him away and said there couldn’t be anything to worry about in a dark and gloomy place such as this.

We cautiously stepped beyond the door and I made my way to the stairwell. Again Zef urged me to caution but I decided to take a look. Zef stepped back to the door as if to leave, but I urged him to wait just a moment longer. I wanted to just see what was at the bottom of the stairs and then we could report back to the others. I stepped lightly down the stone steps with my candle held aloft.

Suddenly I heard a scuttling sound and felt a sharp pain in my right calf and a blow from something against my left foot. Whatever was down here, there were at least two of them. I screamed in fear and agony and heard Zef mutter something about rogues under his breath. Although frightened and panicked beyond belief, my acrobatic training allowed me to back flip up the steps, but as I reached the top of the steps a burning sensation filled my leg and I had to slow down. Somehow, the candle had not gone out and this gave Zef just enough light to skewer one of the denizens of the crypt with a perfectly aimed shot. Firing wildly I was also able to hit the other creature, but the bolt only grazed its carapace. Zef shouted for me to get out whilst he covered, so I did not hesitate. I reached the door just as the other giant centipede, for that is what these nightmares were, scuttled towards me. I tried to slam it in the door but it managed to bite me again before heading off towards easier prey in the darkness. My rapidly numbing legs carried me across the room with the gargoyles and half-way up the stairs before I realised I had left Zef totally in the dark. I readied my crossbow for another shot and placed the candle in a position so that as much of the room was lit as possible considering the limited light source. Whilst I was attempting this all I could hear were curses and the crash of steel on stone as Zef tried to fight the monster. Eventually Zef found his way out through the other door and dazedly made his way across the room towards me and the exit, with the centipede in pursuit. I fired my crossbow, but the bolt merely glanced off the floor beside the vermin. Another shot from me and a stroke of Zef’s sword put enough distance between us and the scuttling denizen that we were able to help each other up the steps to the entrance and out into the fresh night air. We slammed the door of the crypt shut and put our backs to it to prevent the critter from getting out. Zef looked about to collapse, and the poison coursing through my veins left me on the point of passing out too, but we managed to put the old lock back onto the door and get out of the graveyard without any further encounters. Unfortunately, we had both dropped our bows in the process, and left two candles burning alongside a steel mirror in the stairwell to the crypt. These items could easily be traced back to us if found.

We helped each other back over the wall and headed back to Kendra’s house, but the deputy spotted us again. He waved us over and asked us what was wrong. We feigned ignorance of our physical conditions and said it was no bother. He waved us on with a perplexed look on his face.

Upon arrival back at the house, we stumbled through the door. The rest of the party were still up discussing what we needed to do so were able to quickly assess the situation. Dukker prayed to his goddess and was able to heal the pair of us, but the poison would take a little longer to get out of our systems. Dukker worked tirelessly through the rest of the night and the following day to make us at ease.

‘V’ for…? (Day 3)

Whilst Dukker healed and generally made Zef and I comfortable after our near death experiences, the rest of the party got to work on the rest of the investigation. Kazimir continued to follow Kendra around like a love sick puppy (perhaps I am being a little harsh on my companion, what with the poison still coursing my veins, and he was following the professor’s request to protect her from harm?) Moebius busied himself in a variety of libraries, including that in Kendra’s house, trying to piece together the clues he had gathered from the professor’s writings. He had made many connections so far but still had a lot of reading to do.

1. There had been necromancers in the region for millennia
2. They formed unholy alliances with undead creatures
3. Tar Barthan (?) was the Whispering Tyrant
4. The Whispering Way was a series of philosophies spread by whispers, thus the name
5. These necromancers could create liches and may eventually be able to release the Tyrant
6. A gagged skull is their symbol

When Zef and I felt a little better we were able to relay our adventure from the night before and join in the conversation, but, on Dukker’s orders, we were both confined to our beds until later that evening.

Towards the end of the day, just before we readied ourselves to sleep, there came a frantic rapping at the door. One of the villagers was in a right state as she blurted out something about some vandalism to a local monument. As Dukker, Zef and I were otherwise engaged and Moebius still had his head in his books, Kazimir agreed to accompany the woman. He was taken to the monument that commemorated those that died in the fire at Harrowstone prison. He later reported back that there was a huge letter ‘V’ written in blood on the monument’s side facing away from the town (the back of the statue). There was also a great splatter of blood at the base of the monument in which Kazimir spotted a human sized footprint. Other than taking a sample of the blood and working out that the vandalism must have occurred between the hours of six and nine that evening Kazamir was unable to achieve anything other than provide alibis for the rest of the party.

Bringing his blood soaked cloth back to the house in the hope of finding clues held within it, Kazimir was dismayed that none of his more learned companions had the skills to investigate the clue any further; even if it was only to find out whether it was blood at all and if so, from which type of animal.

A visit to Grimburrow (Day 4)

After all of the healing carried out by Dukker, a good night’s sleep, and a big bowl of porridge for breakfast, Zef and I felt a lot better. I was still stiff and sore but the poison had run its course. It would still be a few days before I was back to full fitness but Zef seemed to be pretty much OK though; he seems to be a lot tougher than he looks. Kazimir and I decided to head to the town hall to find out any more rumours about the events of the night before whilst Dukker headed towards the temple to ask the permission of Grimburrow to cleanse and rededicate the crypt in the name of their goddess. Moebius carried on with his studies whilst Zef was tasked with guarding Kendra, much to Kazimir’s chagrin.

Kazimir and I had another odd encounter with the children of the village on our way to the town hall. Although they are very friendly and always seem to have a smile for me the songs that they sing whilst skipping and playing seem rather dreary and ominous. I questioned them about this but they replied that these were songs that they were taught by their mothers and grandmothers, and had been around for a few generations. We learned nothing new at the town hall.

Dukker, meanwhile, failed to impress Father Grimburrow and although not strictly forbidden to cleanse the crypt as it was not actually temple property (although the cemetery is) he was discouraged from trying until he had investigated it himself. At which point he sent a couple of his acolytes, armed with maces, to guard the doors.

 

Disappointed with the outcome of our investigations, we decided to try to sell the gem that Moebius had been hanging onto for several days. He was convinced it was worth thousands, and my quick appraisal convinced me of the same, but the jeweller would only offer us fifteen gold coins for it, saying that it was just a flawed (although better than the one in his own collection) rose quartz stone. Neither of us was convinced, so we decided not to sell it.