The Hunt Begins

Session 1 Recap Part 2

Freeday, 2^nd of Pharast, 4712AR

Under the cover of night the four of us snuck out into the Restlands, careful not to be spotted by any curious villagers. On our way we found that a grave had recently been dug up and the body stolen. The gravestone was so old however, that we could not discern the identity of the person buried there. Using the directions give by the professor in his journal, we easily found the false tomb and descended into its darkened chambers. Inside we were met by two hungry giant centipedes. They were easily dispatched by Thayel and Gisley. Aeros and I have come to rely on the two warriors as shields and find ourselves moving in behind them for protection when things get violent. I’m not much for fighting myself and the elf seems overly frail even for one of his race. After handling the centipedes, we opened the sarcophagus to find that the professor hadn’t completely looted the stash of items within. We quickly gathered the items, among them several magical arrows, a few potions and scrolls, as well as four curious glass tubes which Aeros identified as Haunt Siphons, items designed to neutralize haunted areas, and a brass Spirit Planchete, a device used to communicate with spirits. After taking the items, we bid a hasty retreat back to the Lorrimor house to rest for the night.

The next morning we decided to do some investigating. First, we tracked down the sheriff Benjan Caeller, who had discovered the professor’s body at the ruins. He was in a bit of a foul mood, as the previous night someone had desecrated the Harrowstone Memorial Statue down by the river, dousing it in blood and scrawling the letter “V” at the bottom of it. He had no real information to provide us, save that the professor was struck on the face by the gargoyle. We all seemed a bit perplexed at that, since the description of his death would indicate that he would have been struck on the back of the head and not in the face, which further fed our suspicions that the professor’s death was no mere accident.

On our way back to town, we came across three girls skipping and singing a rather macabre rhyme. When asked what it was about, the girls said that they didn’t know. After that, we decided to split up and search for clues regarding the Whispering Way and the ruins of Harrowstone prison. Thayel and I went to the Temple of Pharasma, while Gisley and Aeros returned to the Lorrimor library to see if they could find any more answers. When we got to the temple, I was surprised that the old codger who ran the place, Father Grimburrow, would not let us in, saying that he didn’t trust foreigners. As a servant of Sarenrae I would have thought that he would have allowed us entry, as both Sarenrae and Pharasma are known allies against the abominations of the night. I must remind myself when I get back to Vigil to write a strongly worded letter to his superiors. Undaunted, we headed to the Unfurled Scroll, a schoolhouse run by a minor magician. After paying the 10gp entry fee, we uncovered a bit of information regarding the prison. Apparently fifty years ago, there had been a riot at the prison which resulted in a fire that destroyed the grounds, killing all the prisoners, most of the guards, along with the warden and his wife.  

When we met back up with Gisley and Aeros, they told us that there had been many notorious prisoners held at Harrowstone, but at the time of the fire 5 particularly evil souls had recently been incarcerated there. But the names of these prisoners still eluded us. After a brief stop at the Laughing Demon tavern which turned up little useful information, we returned back to the Lorrimor house to decide on our next course of action. It was at this time that Thayel seemed to grow impatient with all of our research and suggested that we go straight to the prison and find out what was going on there. So it was decided as a group that we would wait until nightfall to make our first foray on to the prison grounds.