LOST TRAILS: THE HARROWDALE HORROR: PART 3

[Adam]

Bennedict looks over to Raen. "Perhaps not," he replies, "Though she doesn't seem to be a raving madwoman, by any stretch."

[ewancummins]

FURTHER INVESTIGATION of the building turns up:

• a ring of keys to the jail cells and the door of the bailiff's office, under the sprawled body of one of the slain plant-men
  
  a torn and ink-stained piece of paper on the floor of the burgomaster's office, near the big desk. It's only partly legible:
  
  
  VIEW CONTENT:

  ---supply wagons loaded with the remaining public stores of food and drink set aside for the harvest festival--- left in the Temple of Tymora. A horrible Thing lurks there, blaspheming in the darkness and devouring--
  
  
  
  dry goods in the storeroom: nails, rope, chalk, etc.
  
  town records and writing supplies in the records room
  
  notices tacked to the standing bulletin in the lobby--the biggest one is a woodblock print job on rag cloth, the big letters all surrounded by the faint squarish edge-marks of the rectangular wooden stamps the printer used:
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  FINAL EVACUATION ORDER!
  REPORT TO GUARD BARRACKS
  BRING FOOD AND DRINK, FUEL, BLANKETS
  Some muddy footprints here and there in the storeroom and lobby similar to what the party found in the bailiff's office. These weren't here when you all arrived, but could have been made after you entered the bailiff's office. There are also flecks of mud on the stairs that drop from the attic.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Before leaving the attic to investigate the rest of the building with the others, Klokulf pulls in the rope and shuts the window to remove a point of entry, reporting the clear signs of escape to his companions afterward.

In the aftermath of the searches, Klokulf turns his attention to the plant prisoner, examining it's body closely.

[ewancummins]

THE PRISONER IN THE STOREROOM

Before leaving the attic to investigate the rest of the building with the others, Klokulf pulls in the rope and shuts the window to remove a point of entry, reporting the clear signs of escape to his companions afterward.

In the aftermath of the searches, Klokulf turns his attention to the plant prisoner, examining it's body closely.

The child-sized creature wriggles on the floor, but does not struggle hard against the petrified rope that pins its arms against its body.

It resembles a human in gross anatomy: two legs, two arms, neck and head. But it hasn't got a nose. No hair on the gray-green hide, either, only clumps of thick tendrils growing on the limbs , abdomen, and in a topknot on the bulbous head.

Klokulf can't see pupils, yet he feels sure that the thing's big gray eyes are moving to track him.


He sees purplish bruises and scrapes.
His deathly vision tells him the creature is stable but disabled.
A minor healing

VIEW CONTENT:

giving it even 1 HP back

should put it in condition to walk.

[kintire]

Katrin participates in the search of the building, then watches Periele thoughtfully.

"Looks like poeple can recover from whatever this is then. I wonder if killing the Thing helped? Either way I think we have exhausted this place. What now?"

[Adam]

"Whatever was below the floor may still need to be dealt with," Bennedict suggests.

He considers suggesting a similar course to what was used at the church of Tymora, but looks at Raen and falls silent.

[alhoon]

Raen nodded to Benn's words. While he hasn't guessed what the Archivist was thinking, he was in agreement that the thing should be dealt with.
"We need to take care of this creature for the common good. Setting this place on fire would perhaps endanger the whole area and since the creature is underground we can't be sure it would be killed.
If it's a plant it would also probably live way too long to just leave it locked down there.

however... I think we can rest and recuperate and then return tomorrow to put an end to it."

[kintire]

Kat nods "Okay. we leave it alone for now, come back tomorrow and wizard it. Anything else for today?"

[ewancummins]

The rain continues falling hard, beating a tattoo on the roof.
Wind shakes the window shutters.

Periele, her libation and prayers finished, leans weakly against the heavy frame of the open double doors at the back of the storage room.
She coughs into the crook of her arm.
The female acolyte stares at Klokulf's weird, silent prisoner for a minute, shudders, and turns her face away toward the storm lashing the scene outside.
For a time, she's very still and quiet.
Then, she hisses, waving frantically to the others!

Anyone who follows her frantic gestures with his eyes sees, through a curtain of rain, a hedge-topped mass of earth sliding into a ditch or pit maybe sixty yards distant.
Periele says,
''Something big passed to the east, moving into town! It slithered like a snake.''

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Kat nods "Okay. we leave it alone for now, come back tomorrow and wizard it. Anything else for today?"

Klokulf begins, "I was thinking about tying a seeing stone to this creature---" Then the acolyte interrupts, and he rushes to the window.

Anyone who follows her frantic gestures with his eyes sees, through a curtain of rain, a hedge-topped mass of earth sliding into a ditch or pit maybe sixty yards distant.
Periele says,
''Something big passed to the east, moving into town! It slithered like a snake.''

His face becomes dismayed. "That basement mold may be the least of our problems."

[kintire]

Katrin stares into the rain.

"Theres a trail, but the rain is washing it out as I watch. We should find that thing...before it finds us!"

[Adam]

Bennedict sighs, his bones aching for rest, but shoulders his crossbow again. "Let's be about it, then."

He turns back to the recently freed priestess. "Madam, I suggest you find somewhere secure and hole up until this is over. If we don't return..." he drifts off, "Well, if we don't return, I suggest you follow suit with your fellow townsfolk and relocate someplace safer than your village."

[alhoon]

"What did you see Klokuf?" Raen asked.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"What did you see Klokuf?" Raen asked.

As he makes ready to move and secure the prisoner, Klokulf replies, "It was a little unclear, but I would generally agree with the acolyte's description; it was like a large serpent of earth and bushes sliding along many yards away."

[ewancummins]

LOOKING FOR A TRAIL IN THE DOWNPOUR



AFTER KLOKULF locks up his prisoner in one of the cells, he joins Katrin, Raen, and Benn at the back doors.

They go outside, sliding a little down the low muddy hill, then striding across the level ground to the muddy lot where Periele saw the giant 'snake.'

The falling rain has already washed away part of the long, serpentine rut. It runs back toward the woods and higher ground to the west, but the fresher, easier to follow section continues southeast into the town.
The rain still hammers down, heavy and chill.
Following the serpentine rut deeper into Harrowdale-town, the adventurers quickly lose the trail where it passes onto a hard road surface.