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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    lostsole31's Avatar

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    Default Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone [IC]

    The pallbearers are Besus, Khelru, Gasowe, Azaz, Clodius, Sofia Wik-Wiketh, and another member of the townfolk. Kendra, as the deceased's closest living relative, has the job of leading the somber procession along the Dreamwake -- a gravel pathway that winds through the cemetery. The pallbearers have their hands full as they carry the heavy coffin up the road.

    As the procession reaches the halfway point along the Dreamwake, rounding a corner onto a path called the Eversleep, they’ll see that the way ahead is blocked by a group of a dozen surly looking locals. The tallest of these toughs is an elderly but wiry retired soldier named Gibs Hephenus. He speaks out as soon as the group is noticed. “That’s far enough. We been talking, and we don’t want Lorrimor buried in the Restlands. You can take him upriver and bury him there if you want, but he ain’t goin’ in the ground here!”

    Kendra is swift to respond, her sadness swiftly transforming into anger. “What are you talking about?” she cries out. “I arranged it with Father Grimburrow. He’s waiting for us! The grave’s already been...”

    Gaius Clodius Proculus holds up his hand to calm Kendra and he looks at the men, and with Sofia Wik-Wiketh's help (a Royal Accuser of the church of Pharasma), he is able to calm the thugs down so that they sullenly disperse, shooting venomous glances at the PCs and Kendra, but leaving the cemetery nonetheless and allowing the procession to continue.

    Once the PCs have dealt with Hephenus and his gang, Kendra thanks the PCs profusely and apologizes for the harassment. The attending councilors profess shock at the attack and indicate that they recognized the thugs as “local farmhands, all of low character.” Their stance is that the embarrassment Clodius administered to the thugs with his rhetoric is punishment enough—if the PCs insist on further punishment, Councilman Hearthmount sighs, but promises to seek out the town’s sheriff to report the crime.

    In any event, Father Grimburrow - having heard the disturbance - arrives a few moments later. He is shocked by the audacity of the harassment.

    The interruption now past, the procession continues up to the plot Kendra purchased for her father. No further complications prevent the lowering of his coffin into the open grave by the gravediggers. Father Grimburrow gives a short sermon, then invites Kendra to say a few words about her father. Kendra fights back tears and briefly recounts a few of her father’s more courageous or selfless moments, thanking everyone once again for coming. She then invites anyone else to share a few stories or remembrances. Lord Proculus, in particular, gives a very moving eulogy.
    DRAMATIS PERSONAE



    Character
    Color
    AL
    Gender
    Race
    [Ethnicity]
    Side #1
    Side #2
    Azaz Arafe
    Violet
    N M Human
    [Keleshyte]
    Alchemist 2
    [Blazing Torchbearer]
    Evoker 2
    Bariswort Littlefox
    Gray
    CG (CN) M Halfling
    [Wanderer]
    Bard 3
    [Dirge Bard]
    Oracle of Heavens 3
    [Aethurgist] (Desna)
    Besus
    Blue
    N M Aquatic Elf Magus 3
    [Hexcrafter]
    Warder 3
    Gaius Clodius Proculus
    ("Clod")
    Golden Rod
    N (LN) M Human
    [Garundi]
    Investigator 3
    [Empiricist]
    Rogue 3
    [Spy]
    Gasowe
    Maroon
    LN (LE) M Kuru Monk 3
    [Hungry Ghost Monk]
    Shadow Assassin 3
    Khelru
    Saddle Brown
    N M Human
    [Garundi]
    Cleric 3
    (Nethys)
    Resonant Warrior 3
    Sofya Wik-Wiketh
    Teal
    NG (CG) F Avian Aasimar
    [Plumekith]
    Inquisitor 3
    (Pharasma)
    LA 1/ Hunter 2
    [Urban Hunter]
    Last edited by lostsole31; 2019-06-22 at 09:20 AM. Reason: Update Name
    20MAR2024: Completed reading Paizo's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound (2013, Jacobs, Keith, et. al.).
    28JAN2024: Completed reading TPK Games' The Deductionist (2013, Everhart). This source is authorized for playtest.
    Spoiler: Player Status
    Show
    bcool999: On hiatus through 01APR2024.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    lostsole31's Avatar

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    Default Re: Carrion Crown [IC]

    After the funeral is over and Kendra has said goodbye to her other guests, she invites the PCs back to her home (so recently her father's) for a drink and to hear his last will and testament. The Lorrimor residence is a modest home (area N on the Ravengro map) with crowded bookshelves in every room. The reading of the professor’s will requires the presence of Councilman Vashian Hearthmount (the closest thing Ravengro has to a solicitor), and he has some other matters to attend to after the funeral, so he doesn’t arrive for about an hour.

    During this time, he PCs introduce themselves.
    20MAR2024: Completed reading Paizo's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound (2013, Jacobs, Keith, et. al.).
    28JAN2024: Completed reading TPK Games' The Deductionist (2013, Everhart). This source is authorized for playtest.
    Spoiler: Player Status
    Show
    bcool999: On hiatus through 01APR2024.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    lostsole31's Avatar

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    Default Re: Carrion Crown [IC]

    Vashian arrives precisely on time, in any event. No Sense Motive check is necessary to note that he doesn’t completely approve of strangers being involved in local matters, but he keeps his comments to himself, focusing his involvement entirely on the reading of Petros’s will. Kendra isn’t sure what’s contained in the will, since part of its stipulation was that all of the PCs must be present for its reading. Councilman Vashian produces a scroll case, shows that the professor’s personal seal is unbroken, then breaks the wax and opens the case. As he does, a small iron key falls out of the tube, clattering noisily onto the table. Undaunted by the key, the councilman begins to read, eager to be done with the business and to get back home.
    “I, Petros Lorrimor, being of sound mind, do hereby commit to this
    parchment my last will and testament. Let it be known that, with
    the exception of the specific details below, I leave my home and
    personal belongings entire to my daughter Kendra. Use them or
    sell them as you see fit, my child.

    “Yet beyond the bequeathing of my personal effects, this
    document must serve other needs. I have arranged for the reading
    of this document to be delayed until all principals can be in
    attendance, for I have more than mere inheritance to apportion. I
    have two final favors to ask.

    “To my old friends, I hate to impose upon you all, but there are
    few others who are capable of appreciating the true significance of
    what it is I have to ask. As some of you know, I have devoted many
    of my studies to all manner of evil, that I might know the enemy and
    inform those better positioned to stand against it. For knowledge
    of one’s enemy is the surest path to victory over its plans.

    “And so, over the course of my lifetime, I have seen fit to acquire
    a significant collection of valuable but dangerous tomes, any one
    of which in the wrong circumstances could have led to an awkward
    legal situation. While the majority of these tomes remain safe under
    lock and key at the Lepidstadt University, I fear that a few I have
    borrowed remain in a trunk in my Ravengro home. While invaluable
    for my work in life, in death, I would prefer not to burden my
    daughter with the darker side of my profession, or worse still, the
    danger of possessing these tomes herself. As such, I am entrusting
    my chest of tomes to you, posthumously. I ask that you please deliver
    the collection to my colleagues at the University of Lepidstadt, who
    will put them to good use for the betterment of the cause.

    “Yet before you leave for Lepidstadt, there is the matter of
    another favor—please delay your journey one month and spend
    that period of time here in Ravengro to ensure that my daughter is
    safe and sound. She has no one to count on now that I am gone,
    and if you would aid her in setting things in order for whatever she
    desires over the course of this month, you would have my eternal
    gratitude. From my savings, I have also willed to each of you a sum
    of one hundred platinum coins. For safekeeping, I have left these
    funds with Embreth Daramid, one of my most trusted friends in
    Lepidstadt—she has been instructed to issue this payment upon
    the safe delivery of the borrowed tomes no sooner than one month
    after the date of the reading of this will.

    “I, Petros Lorrimor, hereby sign this will in Ravengro on this
    first day of Calistril, in the year 4711, Absalom Reckoning.”

    20MAR2024: Completed reading Paizo's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound (2013, Jacobs, Keith, et. al.).
    28JAN2024: Completed reading TPK Games' The Deductionist (2013, Everhart). This source is authorized for playtest.
    Spoiler: Player Status
    Show
    bcool999: On hiatus through 01APR2024.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    lostsole31's Avatar

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    Default Re: Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone [IC]

    Once the will is read, Councilman Vashian looks to Kendra, who thanks him and dismisses him. Putting on a brave face, Kendra thanks the PCs again for coming, and informs them that she’ll need at least a few weeks to decide if she wants to sell her family home or remain here in Ravengro—in the meantime, as stipulated by the will, she asks the PCs to remain as well. She offers rooms in her spacious house for the PCs, promising them free room and board for the month the will requests them to remain in town, and then excuses herself to go fetch the chest mentioned in the will.

    The chest itself is a relatively small object of oak and iron. Kendra, nervous about the contents, offers the key to the PCs to give them the honor of opening the chest. Lord Proculus (whose second name Clodius has given way to a nickname "Clod," which surprsingly, he does not stop you from using). The key fits the lock perfectly, and within are several old tomes and one relatively new one. The newest tome sits on the top and bears the phrase “Read me now!” scratched into the leather cover. This book is Petros Lorrimor’s journal and is detailed in the next section. The other tomes comprise the books of dangerous lore mentioned in his will—three of these have notes tucked into them indicating that they should be delivered to one Montagnie Crowl, a professor of antiquities at Lepidstadt University. The fourth, Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye, has a note indicating it should be delivered to Embreth Daramid, a judge at the Lepidstadt Courthouse (although the note asks for this delivery in particular to be handled discreetly, and includes the address of Embreth’s home so that the PCs can deliver it there). These books are summarized below.

    Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye: The rich purple cover contains a brass scarab set with a single eye in its center. The book’s covers are rimmed in polished steel and clasped with a small but intricate lock, the keyhole of which appears to be for a key with a strange, triangular shaft. The key is nowhere to be found, and nobody claims any ability to handle unknown locks. Regardless, futzing with a locked book that should be given to someone else and for which each person will be handsomely rewarded is unwise.

    On Verified Madness: This jet-black book is a treatise on aberrations and other entities found on Golarion that possess remote ties to the Dark Tapestry, the name given to the dark places between the stars in the night sky.

    Serving Your Hunger: This text is a copy of one of several unholy books sacred to the goddess Urgathoa. Lorrimor’s notations liberally sprinkle the margins.

    The Umbral Leaves: This lexicon is a translation into Common of the unholy book of Zon-Kuthon.
    Last edited by lostsole31; 2019-06-17 at 09:38 PM.
    20MAR2024: Completed reading Paizo's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound (2013, Jacobs, Keith, et. al.).
    28JAN2024: Completed reading TPK Games' The Deductionist (2013, Everhart). This source is authorized for playtest.
    Spoiler: Player Status
    Show
    bcool999: On hiatus through 01APR2024.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    lostsole31's Avatar

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    Default Re: Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone [IC]

    The professor’s will does not mention his journal—it is not one of the dangerous tomes he wants delivered to Lepidstadt. It does, however, contain clues that cast doubts upon the nature of his death—the professor knew that he was delving into dangerous territory in his final days, and since he didn’t have a chance to amend his will with a warning, he did so in his journal, leaving it in his chest in hopes that the PCs or his daughter would find it should his investigations take a tragic turn. The majority of the entries are relatively bland, accounting for day-to-day activities in a small town. The professor has circled several entries in the book with red ink, though, and it is these entries he wanted the PCs to pay particular attention to. The final entry, dated 17 days ago, was written on the same day the Professor’s body was found.

    20MAR2024: Completed reading Paizo's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound (2013, Jacobs, Keith, et. al.).
    28JAN2024: Completed reading TPK Games' The Deductionist (2013, Everhart). This source is authorized for playtest.
    Spoiler: Player Status
    Show
    bcool999: On hiatus through 01APR2024.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    lostsole31's Avatar

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    Default Re: Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone [IC]

    Professor Lorrimor's journal raises many questions, such as who/what is the Whispering Way? and, what/ where is Harrowstone.

    The group-at-large will notice that the foreigners Khelru and Azaz possess an odd familiarity. The larger, sturdier cleric of Nethys is nontheless well-read on most subjects, but seems to lag behind the leaner, finer-featured evoker. Still, as well-read as both are, they make a good team. That stops at the Whispering Way, however, as Khelru has never heard anything like that before. Azaz, on the other hand, is able to provide some insights. "The Whispering Way is a sinister organization of necromancers that has been active in the Inner Sea region for thousands of years. Agents of the Whispering Way often seek alliances with undead creatures, or are themselves undead. The Whispering Way’s most notorious member was Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant, although the society itself has existed much longer than even that mighty necromancer."

    Sofy Wik-Wiketh, a Royal Accuser of the Church of Pharasma lets out a long sigh at the implication that Professor Lorrimor had been tracking so dangerous a group. "That does sound vaguely familiar, and I am worried if that means that ancient cult has business in his place, or even if they were responsible for the Professor's death."

    Bariswort nods slowly. Though a halfling, he has a curious basso profundo. "You are right, Sofya. And I am impressed, Azaz, that a young man such as yourself - and from a different continent - has heard of what is primarily a central Avistani group.

    "You see, the Whispering Way itself is a series of philosophies that can only be transferred via whispers—the philosophies are never written or spoken of loudly, making the exact goals and nature of the secretive philosophy difficult for outsiders to learn much about.

    "Exact details on the society are difficult to discern, but chief among the Whispering Way’s goals are discovering formulae for creating liches and engineering the release of the Whispering Tyrant. Agents often travel to remote sites or areas plagued by notorious haunts or undead menaces to perform field research or even to capture unique monsters. Their symbol is a gagged skull, and those who learn too many of the Way’s secrets are often murdered, and their mouths mutilated to prevent their bodies from divulging secrets via speak with dead."


    The group looks at little Bariswort, who is as strange as they come when it comes to halflings, for his fell knowledge. Realizing this, he adds, "You see, as a 'dirge bard,' we study the secrets of not only various religions and philosophies to understand the best music to use for funerals, but some of my the senior fellows of my order also act as gravesite protectors, and so the secrets of the grave and the undead need to be known to us."

    Concerning Harrowstone, it is too local a matter for either of the Osirians to have any clue, and they look to their "local" (well, more local, anyway) fellow grievers of the late Professor Lorrimor. Clod seems to know plenty of local stories in general, and that helps Besus remember his history regarding Harrowstone. "Harrowstone is a ruined prison—partially destroyed by a fire in 4661, the building has stood vacant ever since. The locals suspect that it’s haunted, and don’t enjoy speaking of the place.

    "Harrowstone was built in 4594. Ravengro was founded at the same time as a place where guards and their families could live and that would produce food and other supplies used by the prison. The fire that killed all of the prisoners and most of the guards destroyed a large portion of the prison’s underground eastern wing, but left most of the stone structure above relatively intact. The prison’s warden perished in the fire, along with his wife, although no one knows why she was in the prison when the fire occurred. A statue commemorating the warden and the guards who lost their lives was built in the months after the tragedy—that statue still stands on the riverbank just outside of town."


    With the disturbing discussion of a society of undead facilitators and a burnt out prison in town, and the recent burial of their mentor, the whole of the group is tired and seek sleep to rest themselves. For they have a lot to think on, especially Khelru and Azaz.
    20MAR2024: Completed reading Paizo's Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound (2013, Jacobs, Keith, et. al.).
    28JAN2024: Completed reading TPK Games' The Deductionist (2013, Everhart). This source is authorized for playtest.
    Spoiler: Player Status
    Show
    bcool999: On hiatus through 01APR2024.

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