Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone [IC]

[Ason]

"Trouble!" Marius yelps as he falls into a fighting posture against the animated straitjacket. Glancing about the room for anything to useful, his eyes settle on the shelves behind the 'living' clothing.

With a "Watch out! Sorry!" of apologetic warning to his friends, the young man attempts to hook the hammer portion of his lucerne hammer over the top of the shelving unit and then to yank down on the fixture to hopefully leverage it down onto the flying clothes. Whether his desperate flailing succeeds or fails, he then shifts away from the door next and to Wren.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

Swift: adopt Aura of Misfortune stance, giving the animated clothing -2 to its saves
Standard?: use his polearm to yank on the shelving unit to pull it down onto the animated clothing; (1d20)[7]

**Free (as part of above action): spend 1 inspiration to add (1d6)[2] to the skill/ability check... or spend 2 inspiration to do that if roll treated as attack roll / saving throw
**Note: if for some reason his polearm becomes stuck on the shelving unit, Marius will abandon it for now in order to maintain his mobility

Move (depending on above): if Marius had to abandon his polearm due to the shelving unit, he draws his dagger as a move action
Misc: five-foot step to the northwest, immediately to the west of Wren

[lostsole31]

R1T21: "Trouble!" Marius yelps as he falls into a fighting posture against the animated straitjacket. Glancing about the room for anything to useful, his eyes settle on the shelves behind the 'living' clothing.

With a "Watch out! Sorry!" of apologetic warning to his friends, the young man attempts to hook the hammer portion of his lucerne hammer over the top of the shelving unit and then to yank down on the fixture to hopefully leverage it down onto the flying clothes, but this is a shelving unit with a big gap with basins inset into it. It doesn't move.. He then shifts away from the door next and to Wren.

R1T19: Abrax, the warning has been given, and strange sounds inside. You don't see the source of the disturbance yet. What do you do?

[lostsole31]

R1T19: Abrax steps into the room, next to the threat, and takes a quick measure. He draws his deer horn knife and throws his power into a slash that does 7. He calls out, "Not undead. Construct, animated object."

R1T18: Hargrimm, what do you do?

[SwordChucks]

Not entirely sure what's engaged with Abrax, Hargrimm steps forward to get a better look. When he gets next to Abrax, he reaches out and says "This will help center you."

Spoiler: Combat

Show

Move action: Move to be adjacent to Abrax.
Standard action: Use Touch of Law on Abrax.

[lostsole31]

R1T18: Not entirely sure what's engaged with Abrax, Hargrimm steps forward to get a better look. When he gets next to Abrax, he reaches out and says "This will help center you."

R1T11: Wren goes to stab and tear as deeply as he can into the straitjacket, but he temporarily gets entangled in the thing, and gets winded for his effort (exhausted). He steps 5' away.

R1T3: Zauberei, what do you do?

[Tippnick]

Zauberei throws his staff at the object it goes in thee direction of the opponent and returns.

Spoiler: Hand of the acolyte

Show

SA: Risky strike using Hand of the Acolyte
(d20+4)[17]
Has precise shot
(d6+1)[2]

He then takes a 5 foot step NE

[lostsole31]

R1T3: Zauberei throws his staff at the object it goes in thee direction of the opponent, smacking it for 2,before his staff immediately returns to his hand just as he moves to step offline, only to bonk into the wall he forgets was there.

R1T1: The animated straitjacket slaps down at Abrax. The aasimar tries to ward the blow, but his arm gets hit for 8 (though no wounds show), finding the straitjacket to be way stronger than expected. It smacks down at Marius with another limb to strike the man in the neck for 8 as well (causing some swelling); there is quite a tussle as the straitjacket almost has hold of him, with Marius managing to break free.

End of Round One, Begin Round 2 ...

R2T21: Marius, what do you do?

Abrax on deck, Hargrimm in the hole ...

[Ason]

Marius winces from his near miss with the animated clothing and draws his dagger if he has not done so already. The young man then slashes at the living straitjacket with an unusual speed.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

Move: draw dagger if not drawn already
Standard: Temporal Burn attack maneuver; attack roll (1d20+8)[17]; damage roll (1d4+1)[2]; extra damage roll (2d6)[7]; automatically overcomes DR & ignores hardness

[lostsole31]

R2T21: Marius winces from his near miss with the animated clothing. He drops his ranseur with a clatter, and draws his dagger. The young man then slashes at the living straitjacket with an unusual speed, grazing it or 9.

R2T19: Abrax, you currently have a comfortable, balancing force affecting your right now, as offered by Hargrimm, though it also diminishes the fire of passion as well. What do you do?

Spoiler: Touch of Law

Show

This means that you treat all attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws for 1 round as if the natural d20 roll resulted in an 11.

An interesting side note, you don't get to choose to use it or not. You would have to choose to be "unwilling" when it is bestowed upon you, and Abrax wouldn't had any reason to do that with Hargrimm any more than if he resisted a healing spell.

Hargrimm on deck, Wren in the hole ...

[lostsole31]

R2T19: Abrax goes full power on ridge-hand strikes, guided by Hargrimm's axiomatic touch, and both blows easily land for a total of 21.

R2T18: Hargrimm, the touch of law ends. What do you do?

Wren on deck, Zauberei in the hole ...

[SwordChucks]

Hargrimm tries to mitigate the punishment doled out by the strangely powerful jacket. He grabs hold of the tangle of holy symbols and releases a wave of energy.

Spoiler: Combat

Show

Standard action: Channel Energy to heal the living.

Channel Energy: (2d6+1)[10]

[lostsole31]

R2T18: Hargrimm tries to mitigate the punishment doled out by the strangely powerful jacket. He grabs hold of the tangle of holy symbols and releases a wave of energy which fully heals all members of the party!

R2T11: Wren stands to the side, catching his breath, but then seems successful in having done so.

R2T3: Zauberei, what do you do?

Animated straitjacket on deck, Marius in the hole ...

[Tippnick]

Zauberei speaks an arcane phrase and makes a gesture that brings forth a flaming ray from his hand.

Spoiler: scorching ray

Show

(d20+3)[17] ranged touch against the article of animated clothing.

(4d6)[11] fire damage

[lostsole31]

R2T3: Zauberei speaks an arcane phrase and makes a gesture that brings forth a flaming ray from his hand, completely torching it for 11 fire! There is barely anything remaining when the several, light, wispy, floating pieces of carbon settle on the ground.

Combat Ends ...

[SwordChucks]

Hargrimm breathes a sigh of relief. "I prefer inanimate objects to stay inanimate. Is everyone alright?"

If no one needs his aid, Hargrimm starts poking around the room, searching for anything that came out in the wash.

[Ason]

Marius exhales as the thing finally drops. "I'm okay, thanks. I am getting quite sick of these ghostly ambushes, but I suppose they are par for course. Here, let me help you search."

[lostsole31]

This is a big damn room, with lots of detritus, so it is going to take awhile for a good, deep-in search (a hair shy of an hour). This, of course, gives more than enough time for Hargrimm's fortifying energies to strengthen the party to its maximum. It turns out nobody was actually "wounded" by the end of the battle, Hargrimm's radiant powers having done their job.

The only thing of note is that there is a secret door from the laundry to the workshop to the SW (where you met Vesorianna), but that is less of a "secret, spooky door of nefarious secretness" so much as a built-in, quick-access between the clothing workshop and the laundry.

Zauberei will have to keep casting light on Marius' weapon (twice during this time, in fact).

Wren says, "I know that we have the strength and resources among us to continue, but we spent enough time that if we continued, I have some recommendations for changes to search routine to make. Honestly, though? I think we had a real knowledge-bomb tossed on us from Vesorianna. In bardic circles, we call that 'Major Exposition.' I think we should head back to the house to report our findings thus far..."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

"...and not at all because I know that the GM was looking for a stopping point to return to the house to be able to have two players rejoin us while one absent player takes a break. Yup, I am totally unaware of the god-machine, and my in-character speech perfectly sums up the real and absolutely only reason we should return. No, I think if the gods existed, they would never abuse their position by making a non-character choice and controlling, let's say, an NPC like myself to seek a solution to an out-of-character issue like how and when to bring in new PCs."

[SwordChucks]

Hargrimm straightens his back with effort as his search of the room turns up little. "That sounds like a good plan Mr. Elbourne. Important information would be lost if we pressed on and didn't make it. We could bring something back with us to destroy those manacles and get that rope back too."

[Ason]

Marius nods in agreement. "And the murderers' weapons that we found might bear reporting too, though I am still unsure what we ought to do with them."

Pausing to wipe some sweat off his brow after the past hour's exertion, the young man shares an unrelated idea, "But I would also suggest that, when we return, we perhaps worry less about scouring every inch of this place. While 'dirty laundry' can mean 'secrets', our work here hasn't revealed any in this room. We may want to focus more on areas that hold greater promise for unraveling the mysteries of this place, giving the other rooms more of a cursory survey."

[Tippnick]

"Agreed, or goal should be discover the location of the sheriff. We should be prepared for the undead", Zauberei advises.

[lostsole31]

"I disagree," says Wren. "The expectation is that the hidden will be rare, right? But when it does happen, if we are just being 'cursory' then we'll miss something. We aren't on the clock. I mean, we seem to be on a minor one, what with Vesorianna's name seemingly being spelled out at the memorial. But our overall progress has been significant, even with a deep search. We are solving a mystery of Professor Lorrimor's death, at the core, and while we seem to have the basics of the death, the fallout of the murderers' actions is the haunting of the town. Now, today, we just about searched what seems like 50% of the prison's upper level. But, if you say cursory is the way to go..." he shrugs.

Is everyone else fine pulling out for the day?

[lostsole31]

The party, in agreement, backtracks. Marius collects Paula, and everyone returns to Lorrimor House where they meet two new persons....

Angelo and Alexandru, describe (fully) your PCs, and then introduce yourselves!

[Moriar]

Angelo is a slightly short, lanky fellow that has intricate tattoos with inlaid metals and rich colors and moves with cat like grace. His black hair is shoulder length with golden eyes staring back out. Overall he is clean and carries himself well with a ready smile; making most that he looks at feel at ease and friendly. A few of the darker themed tattoos seem to come alive with sinister intent.

Angelo is relaxing in a chair and casually tosses a spikey ball with a thickly gloves hand to Alexandru in the other chair.

"Greetings," Angelo says with a smile, "my brother and I came here to talk with the Professor. But it seems that something happened to him?

The gracious lady Kendra said that you all would be able to explain it best?"

[SwordChucks]

Hargrimm shoots a quick glance to the rest of the party before starting. "The professor died while searching Harrowstone prison. Now his investigation has become our investigation. Mrs. Lorrimor seems to trust you, so I'll include that we discovered the professor was murdered by a group of necromancers called the Whispering Way. They've performed some ritual in the prison that is causing trouble in town."

[BuckGodot]

Alexandru leaps to his feet in shock, looking first at the group and then his brother... Alexandru is a well-muscled and confident man, of about 6', with long black hair and blue eyes. He carries himself with smooth ease and while not unattractive, he is also not eye-catching. He looks down at the floor and a wave of sadness overcomes him as he slowly sinks back to the seat... "That is fell news..."

[Moriar]

"Lexi! You dropped Tippy," Angelo says as the spiked ball hits his chest as he stands up and lands on the floor. The ball of spikes unwinds and becomes visible as a hedgehog. The hedgehog crawls back to Angelo and then its form merges with him and a new tattoo appears on his skin in the shape of Tippy.


The information of what Hargrimm said sinks in and it slowly dawns on Angelo what was said.

"Sorry Tippy, it seems that our visit is not going to be as pleasant at we had hoped. Alexandru, should we offer to help in light of that information? Perhaps our skills could be useful in unraveling this mystery?"

Without quite waiting long enough for his brother to answer..."Hmm, yes we could definitely help. It looks like you all have been through an ordeal. How can we help?"

[BuckGodot]

Alexandru keeps his eyes down for the most part but does glance at his brother and nod his agreement.

[Ason]

Marius nervously smiles at the newcomers' introduction and subduedly offers an introduction for himself and his familiar, Paula, in return.

After the pair agree to help, the young man shares, "We could use your aid, as the task has been rather daunting. The professor's life is not the only one lost so far: just a day or so ago the town was attacked by fiery undead we suspect were sent by the cultists." He awkwardly looks down at his feet, ruefully recalling the bravery of Othello and Razvan.

Shaking off that melancholy, he then asks their gracious hostess, "How have things been in town since then, Kendra? I regret not being here to aid in the recovery, but I believe we have today made our first major breakthroughs in pacifying the spirits at Harrowstone. I think we now have a plan to bring an end to the hauntings."

[lostsole31]

"Uneasy," says Kendra, "as there's the odd weirdness, but nothing life-threatening or actionable."

A handsome man in tattered clothing - his coat looking like an academic's white coat (now torn, bloody, and dirty) - says, "I am Detective Wren Elbourne. Welcome. We'll have pleasantries over dinner, but yes, we have much to discuss. Zauberei and Marius, I think we need as solid a look at the Five Items as possible."

Fast forward to a longer dinner, where a small, animate metal-and-wood "doll" serves the meal, and the newcomers are brought up to speed with all that has happened thus far. (So, no need to belabor with ten real days of blatherskite.)

[Moriar]

"Good to meet you all and thank you for the hospitality Kendra," Angelo says. "As for what you have discovered so that is very interesting; plus you were able to talk to an actual ghost! That is very interesting! I have always thought I could make friends with those who have not quite moved on. Those items still have ties to their former owners perhaps?"

"May I look them over?" Angelo then starts looking them over after not really waiting for a response; seeming to have forgotten the sober topic mentioned only moments earlier in his excitement. Tippy comes out again to sniff at the items.

Spoiler: Eyeing the Goods

Show

Unless thwarted from looking over the items, will cast Detect Magic and look over the items using any relevant lore.