Into the Prison

Session 1 Part 3 Recap

From the Journal of Sister Carlotta Dumaine, Dawnbringer of Sarenrae

Freeday, 2nd of Pharast, 4712AR - Night

As I write this entry, I am sitting in a partially flooded, rough-hewn cavern in the bowels of Harrowstone prison. The deeper we get, the more worried I become. I have seen now that the grounds of Harrowstone are home to the unquiet dead and it chills my bones to think not only of what happened here those many years ago, but what terrible fate could befall us at any minute.

The second we crossed through the rusted gates of the prison grounds I felt ill at-ease. The big barbarian Gisley claimed to have felt his flesh burn from his skin despite no visible effects. I have heard that the northern tribesmen are a superstitious lot and I chalked it up to his own deep-seated fears about the spirit world. Yet as we made our way about the grounds it became clear that the big man was not creating phantoms in his own head. After searching through a decrepit building and finding reference to a woman named Vesorianna Hawkran, we made our way around the back of the prison. The stone walls there had been blackened from the fire and the foundation had collapsed. A small mire had formed there as well; the result of flooding from some unknown source. Thayel, the impatient one, waded out into the water to see what he could find, but the moment his feet touched the brackish water, it began to bubble. Three figures slowly emerged from the water in the distance. My companions unleashed their bows and took aim at the slowly moving figures. I’m not sure how many times we hit the creatures, but none of them fell. I do remember however, that Aeros was a particularly horrendous shot and his arrows sailed far over the heads of their targets.

As they came closer, I understood horror for the first time in my life. I had believed that the tales of undead creatures such as the Whispering Tyrant were merely symbolic of the corruption of souls through evil acts; I never really believed that such things existed. But as I looked at the bloated bodies, with their milky eyes and rotted mouths I realized that the stories were true. In a moment of panic I called upon the light of Sarenrae to protect me. Fiery beams of light shot down from the heavens and seared the flesh on the bones of the undead monstrosities, yet they continued to advance. Gisley took a position in front of Aeros and after being struck solidly by one, managed to hit two of them with one mighty blow, tearing the face of off one and caving in the chest of another with his great hammer. Thayel danced about the other as it swung sluggishly at him and  tore it to ribbons in a dazzling display of footwork and swordplay. Though we proved to be the easy victors in our first encounter at the prison, I worry that if we go about trying to uncover every stone in this place, we will be overwhelmed by needless battles.

Realizing that dilly-dallying about the perimeter of the prison was getting us nowhere, we decided to go inside and try our luck there. The front entrance seemed the most logical (if not the most prudent) place to start. After a few attempts we eventually managed to tear the rotting doors off their hinges and gain entrance. A bit of investigating on the first floor turned up a safe. Without anyone skilled enough to unlock it, we had Gisley smash the thing to pieces with his hammer. I wouldn’t have thought it possible had I not seen it with my own eyes, but he managed to crack the thing in half without destroying the contents inside. We were able to recover several potions along with a pouch containing 500gp. Further along we found a number of files which shed greater light on the five notorious prisoners incarcerated here at the time of the fire. These sick individuals included the Piper of Illmarsh who used music to charm stirges that he then forced to drink the blood of his paralyzed victims; the Lopper, a nasty brute who would chop the heads off of his unsuspecting victims; the Mosswater Marauder, an insane dwarf obsessed with smashing people’s skulls in an effort to find an exact match to the fragment missing from his dead wife’s; and the Splatter Man, a serial killer who hounded his victims by spelling out their names in blood before coming to claim their lives. Of the final prisoner, one Father Charlatan, we found no information. I pray that this lack of information about the final prisoner does not come back to haunt us.

After finding a hole in the floor in one of the rooms and defeating a trio of flaming skulls (an odd sight indeed), we descended to the lower levels which were partially flooded from the mire above (which is where I now write this entry). Here, as we tried to progress further into the depths, two amorphous-looking, vaguely humanoid creatures pulled themselves up out of the water. They were hideous to look at, with gobs of gooey slime dripping off of them. Indeed it seemed a great struggle for them to keep their forms together.  Thankfully, Thayel is quite adept at identifying monsters and warned us that these were ectoplasmic creatures who drew their thick, vile bodies from the ethereal plane to be used as host for their tortured souls. After being informed of their weaknesses by Thayel, Gisley entered a frothing rage. I swear by the Lady of Light he grew several inches and his muscles seemed like they would burst from his skin as he underwent some psychotic transformation. His eyes became wild and he seemed not to recognize friend or foe, though he did not attack us. With the ferocity of a bear, he tore into two of the creatures and splattered their bodies across the cavern walls. Thayel once again deftly danced out of harm’s way as the other creature swung at him with his dripping arms, before slicing the creature in half with his wickedly sharp axe. Somehow, Aeros managed to get struck during the melee, though he himself failed to land a blow. With two of my comrades hurt, I called upon the healing flame of Sarenrae to relieve their wounds. It was at this point that we decided to rest up a bit and consider our next move. I myself am leery about delving deeper into the underbelly of this prison too soon. I sense a brooding darkness here that I fear watches our every step, waiting for the proper moment to strike.

Sarenrae, let your light guide me.