The whole group except Ciprian set off up a main street through Thrushmoor. They were looking for clothing shops in which Ursina wanted to purchase a new explorer's outfit and vestments. The rest were on the look for magic shops, smithys, and food. A few bakeries caught Armania's eye and she purchased some bread. All were hoping to find food and a bed to sleep in.
As the group approached the inn they were directed to they began hearing a voice, "Doom is coming! The second vanishing is upon us!"
A scruffy man is pacing outside an inn identified as the Silver Wagon. He is shabbily dressed, stringy hair and boils on his face. His voice though carries quite a distance, "Pray for your salvation that the Briarstone Witch doesn't take you!"
Seeing Gavril approach he advances toward him, "I saw the Witch in my dreams rising up from the bay and plucking townsfolk from their homes with her wicked long nails. Pray for your salvation!"
Ursina was amused by the character and started repeating, "Zandalus Sees! Words fail!" laughing as she followed Gavril toward the doors to the inn.
The man kept shouting is warning, "Doom is coming! The Briarstone Witch is upon us! She wants my beetle collection. Don't let her know where I live."
"Where do you live?" queried Gavril.
"Oh, I'm not telling you, you could be agents of the authorities come to lead the Witch to my beetles!" shouted the man.
The party had a good laugh as they entered the inn. The inn was not a grand place but certainly looked comfortable and cozy. The taproom that they entered had a dozen or so customers with two servers and a barkeep. Gavril strode up to the bar just to hear the barkeep regale one of the men at the bar.
"There once was a Count of Thrushmoor,
Whose pecker was surprisingly poor.
He fiddled and diddled with ways to enrich it,
But instead his balls drug on the floor."
There ensued a great guffaw from the man at the bar and the surrounding people. Several ordered up another round, "Dena, get me another," was heard from several patrons.
Gavril sat on a bar-stool and asked for a drink. As the barkeep turned and looked at him, her face
suddenly changed from a laugh to a disgusted look. "You are not allowed in here! You have a large unpaid tab!" she said sternly. "And those "friends" of yours are not allowed in here either," she stated as she saw the other members of the group, even Ursina who tried to move surreptitiously to a table in the back.
"Wait, I can pay whatever the tab is," responded Gavril.
"You also started a bar fight and spent a night in the holding cell at the Fort," answered Dena. "Until the Count can make restitution and the Magistrate removes your parole, you are banned from this fine establishment."
Armania spoke up, "What could I have done to deserve the same treatment?"
"You know this cad, and all of you work for Count Lowls, now get out of here. Fellas can you help me remove these miscreants? Dena announced.
Several of the men and women in the taproom moved to surround the group and with some effort and discussion escorted them out of the Silver Wagon back to the street.
Meanwhile Ciprian had made his way to the Sleepless Detective Agency. He rapped on the door, more than once before a female human, dressed as an adventurer opened the door. Immediately recognition was evident on her face. "You can't come in here. You know that you and your "friends" working for Count Lowls have caused enough issues here in Thrushmoor. Now with the current kidnappings and disappearances, you certainly aren't welcome!"
Ciprian was tongue tied for a second, but asked "Do you know me?"
"Yes, you are Ciprian and as I said not welcome here," she bellowed as she slammed the door shut.
Undeterred Ciprian walked around to the rear of the large building and finding a rear door knocked. A
tall, fit woman approaching middle age answered. She had reddish-brown hair, trimmed short. Her eyes were large and inquisitive, her pale skin scattered with freckles across her cheeks. She dressed more like a business woman that an adventurer. "Ciprian, I certainly am not happy to see you once again."
Ciprian, using the opening explained his situation, the fugue state he seemed to be in, the disaster that had occurred at Briarstone Asylum, meeting Winter, the need for help bringing the former patients down river to Thrushmoor. "Do you really know who I am, and who are you" Ciprian lastly asked.
"You know darn well I am Cesadia Wrentz, head of the Sleepless Agency. You threw out a ton of information. How could I possibly know that it is true given your history. Yes I know you and those friends of yours! I don't suppose they are around anywhere?"
"Could you send help and maybe explain some things to me?" Ciprian responded.
"The only way I could help you is if Winter came with you and verified what you are describing. Otherwise there really is nothing I can do to help."
So Ciprian trudged to the Fort wondering what his past really was. Who am I really? What did I do in this town? Well maybe the Constable can help me? Then he saw the Fort, built entirely of stone, twenty feet or so in height with round towers that rose above that. Arrow loops opened on either side of great wooden doors. Tarnished brass door knockers, carved into the shapes of perching birds hung on the door, and the spy hatch was shuttered. Ciprian approached and knocked on the door. After some time the spy hatch opened and a human face appeared.
"May I help you?" asked the woman.
Again Ciprian started into his monologue about the disaster that had occurred at Briarstone Asylum, his want for some help and information about the town. Finally again he queried "Do you know me?"
"Why should I know you?" came the reply. "I am Constable Cesyll, I am just following orders from
Magistrate Padgett before he left town. I can't help the fort can no longer perform it's duties, the mercenaries have defected. I can't worry about some crazies from the Asylum, not with all the disappearances in town.
"Maybe you could help calm the citizens? Everyone certainly seems on edge." stated Ciprian.
Sighing deeply Cesyll reiterates, "I have spent sleepless nights trying to come up with a plan to deal with the situation. I even sent out messenger pigeons days ago seeking reinforcements, but as of yet no one has replied. I have work to do here," she finally says as she shuts the spy hatch.
As Ciprian was returning to the chapel he encountered the rest of the group trudging away from the Silver Wagon. As they moved through town they swapped information about the various encounters they had just experienced.
"Maybe we have houses in town. If we can find them we could get a nights rest." Gavril proposed.
"I want to go back to the detective agency," said Armania. "They must know I couldn't have done anything evil or wrong. Maybe I can get us in." So she marched right up to the door and knocked, loudly. Gavril hid around the corner, realizing he would be recognized promptly.
It took some time but the same female detective answered the door. "Yes," she said and then spied Ciprian trying to hide in the back of the party. "Cesadia said not to come back unless you could have Winter vouch for you."
"But wait a moment," said Armania, "Do you know who I am? I am not as bad as these other people. I'm one of the good ones."
"Sure I know you, you are Count Lowls little sex whore up at Iris Hill!" responded the adventurer.
A gasp went up from the group, along with a tittering smirk from around the corner. Pointing at Paullus she added "And he almost got into a fight with Lucky Joslyn. Maybe I should call her, she can come out here and finish the rumble." Then she slammed the door shut in Armania's face.
"Well, I never," started Armania but Erevel was already suggesting that they go find Iris Hill. Maybe they could get in and talk to the Count, say we are back and ready for more service. Armania harrumphed at that last suggestion.
Asking a random person on the street the group received directions to Iris Hill, Paullus seemed to have a flash of memory as they traipsed to the northwestern hill. He recalled climbing this road several times up to the Manor House?
As the group approached they saw a very large, maybe 20 foot tall hedge in front of them where they were told Iris Hill stood. A squat building appeared to pierce through the hedge providing the only break visible. The building sported a pair of heavy wooden doors bearing a small sliding hatch. Gavril approached the hedge and trying to peer through noted that it was quite deep. He also saw long thorns, as long as a finger, interspersed among the hedges, they looked quite sharp. Ursina detected magic in the whole hedge, in fact the entire greenery was magical. From their current vantage point it was not clear if the hedge was a complete circle, but not wanting to hike all the way around yet, Gavril knocked on the door, which had no knocker or bell.
The sliding hatch opened and a gruff voice demanded "Yeah, whaddaya want?"
"We are returning to work, can you tell Count Lowls that we are here?" Gavril opined.
"The Count is away on business," came the gravely response.
"Sure, sure, just send some runner in to tell the Count we are here. He will be angry if you don't let us in." Gavril pleaded.
"Look the Count is away and given the current events the estate isn't receiving any guests. Go away!" was the only response.
Ciprian moved up saying "Gavril, what was that name Lowls gave you to ask for?"
Gavril turned confused saying "Huh, what are you talking about."
The guard at the door reiterated in a deadpan voice "Look Count Lowls is away on business, leave now!" At that he slams the sliding hatch shut.
Paullus noted that the hedge was certainly not natural, there were real trees around the area, "Lets see if there is a back entrance," as he headed off in a clockwise direction. Paullus and Ursina were paying special attention to findings tracks around the circumference of the hedge. The hedge appeared to completely encircle whatever was inside and other than a few animal tracks there was nothing indicating any kind of secret, or not so secret, second entrance. The hedge sported the thorns everywhere the party looked.
Erevel spotted a large tree at the western side of the compound and clambered up high enough to be able to just see over the hedge. Inside were several buildings, at least four that she could see. They seemed to be two stories in relatively good repair. At the west and south end was what seemed to be a large manor house. There were stone paths leading from the buildings to the back end of the gatehouse. Weeds had sprung up in the formerly manicured lawns and they had even started to colonize the place. Crows stood on the peaks of some of the buildings, calling out their dreadful squawks.
As dusk was falling, Erevel stayed on watch for any lights in the buildings. The small building farthest away soon had some kind of light playing out of second floor windows. The nearest building to Erevel also show a dim-light from a couple of windows. As it became near dark, a door opened that a human and two humanoid but clearly not human figures strode out. The two humanoids were tall and thin but carried themselves with a different gait than the human. They headed to the gatehouse, opened the door and entered, shutting the door behind them. Some minutes later the same three or others of the same ilk left the gatehouse and walked back to the building. Erevel noted that the eyes of the humanoids shone red.
Now that evening had fallen and the group was hungry and tired they decided to head back to the chapel, hoping to be allowed rest and recovery there. Along the way, following a different path they noted what seemed to be a healers house, a lumber and coal yard, the smithy and on a tall hill they noted a standing stone. The semicircular piece of stone stood 12 feet tall atop the hill. The stela was
mostly cylindrical, but the side of the stone facing the center of town had been ground down into a flat surface carved with enigmatic symbols. The flattened area was etched with what looked to be a star. Walking around the stone Armania noted a faint aura of conjuration and transmutation. Ciprian tried to recall any local information about the stones and with a flash of remembrance he determined that scholars from the Sincomakti School in Rozenport believed that there were three stones altogether. Two stood on the highest points of Thrushmoor while the third was destroyed or removed when Pragmus Lowls built the Iris Hill estate over two centuries ago.
Finally the group moved on to the chapel, buying the last of the smoked fish from the smokehouse on their way. At the chapel they were welcomed by the acolyte, Pola, and Naysa the nurse from Briarstone and spent a quiet, uneventful night.
In the morning the group was still waiting for Winter to arrive they decided to search out the second standing stone. As they left the chapel they were confronted by an angry mob yelling at a small lodging across the street. The mob carried clubs and some held stones but most seemed rather nervous or unsure about approaching the building.
"Come on out Lelwyn! Fess up to the vandalism you have done on the buildings of Thrushmoor. We'll give you what for!"
A tall, thin half-elf with blond hair and deep gray eyes stepped out of the lodging, "Friends I have done
no such thing. I was hired to paint new frescoes in the chapel by Trilliss. You have seen my work, the graffiti style is nowhere near mine."
Paullus asked a member of the mob why they thought this artists was responsible for the damage.
A middle aged man with a lazy eye replied, "He's the only artist here in town, and that vandalism didn't start showing up on our walls until he arrived. And now the priestess is gone! Some folks keep talking about how the Briarstone Witch is coming back for Thrushmoor, but I know that he's behind the troubles."
"What graffiti are you talking about?" queried Armania.
"Those damn sooty murals of a gloomy and abandoned city that deface our buildings." was the reply.
Ciprian walked up to the crowd and began a performance trying to Fascinate some of the mob, distract them from their goal. Ursina moved around to the half-elf, Lelwyn and tried to intimidate the mob brandishing her holy book. Several of the crowd in front moved back from her, lowering their weapons and looking around sheepishly.
Gavril was taking the whole show in avidly, wondering where this might lead.
Finally Ciprian spoke kindly and purposefully to the mob, convincing them that the artist was not behind the murals, and besides they wouldn't really kill him if it came to that. He then continued his screed of trying to drum up help in rowing the patients from Briarstone down to Thrushmoor. The crowd mostly wandered off ignoring his pleas for help.
Lelwyn invited the group into his small lodgings, he said he had a reward for there help. His studio was cluttered with canvases supplies and partially completed paintings. He talks about setting his easel up on the shore and painting views of the bay. "I haven't been able to do that recently with all this rain and gloom outside. I mostly just work on the frescoes in the chapel now.
The party tells Lelwyn a little of their story, not the Asylum part, just that they are new in town looking for work. As they converse Erevel noted a triptych displayed on and easel. It is still in a sketch phase, six people in full figure, though their faces were incomplete. In the background, three different cities flow seamlessly into one another under a yellowish sky. The figures in the paintings are uncanny renditions of the party.
Lelwyn, rummaging in the room turns around with a bag of holding and says, "There is 500 gold in this bag, it is for all of you." Suddenly he gasps, and says, "Yours are the faces I have been dreaming of."
DM's Notes: The party earned 267 XP for the night. Having finished Book 1 "In Search of Sanity" we are starting Book 2.
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