Fifth Day

Note to self: We didn’t ask anyone in town about the two names we found on the mausoleums. Or did we???

After laying the ghostly apparition to rest, Charles recommends that the party return to town as he is both out of spells for healing and night is beginning to fall. The rest of the party agrees and the party returns to the Lupa Rosa. There Ana offers to provide a nice small plates dinner instead of a more lavish meal or the current stew on the hearth. Kiren takes some time during dinner to inform the party of her noticing veins in the moving plants. They appeared to be spiderlike veins and when the creatures were destroyed the dropped a black sand. The glowing swarm in the south tower also had the same veins and dropped similar black sand. Kiren collected samples of each but did not wish to display them in the inn’s main hall out of concern for the rest of the patrons. After dining, Kiren, Thulnir, and Charles chatted with the crones again. Kiren attempts to discuss with them topics ranging from Lena, Horvash, and Hans. The crones mention that there is a blacksmith, Stefan Balan, and a herbalist, Baba Dania. Lena apparently apprenticed with Baba Dania before she left to the capital. They also mention a peddler, Radu Vaduva, who comes to the town every few weeks. He is expected to arrive soon. Kiren and Thulnir inspect the upstairs and find a guest registry. Upon searching it they learn that the name of the son/nephew of the loggers was Gregor Pendergrast, since the crones could not seem to agree on his name at least the party has that now.

Mutu, where was Mutu in all of this you might ask, apparently “he” determined that when we ordered dinner would be a good time to go into his shutdown rest cycle period thing. He was left in the great hall when the rest of the party all went upstairs to bed. Charles has a lingering suspicion that Mutu came into his room while he slept. He’s probably being protective, should Charles worry about a robot servant of Serenrae who decided to watch over him?

In the morning, the party visits first the blacksmith Stefan Balan. The party notices that the coal he is using appears to be much darker than normal peat or coal. Charles is not certain but he swears that Kiren nicked a piece. While not necessarily in the purview of Sarenrae, it might be a good choice to try and pay the smith for the coal if Charles does confirm she took a piece. Stefan was willing to talk about the ring he engraved for the couple, Lena and Hans. He wrote “H&L Always & Forever” on the inside. He mentions that Han’s dad, Johan Bower, died after the loss of Hans. He apparently drank a lot. He was found at the edge of the village and to many it appeared he had tripped and hit is head on a rock. The others did not necessarily believe the story. The nephew, Dragos Bower, sold off items in the house and then left which happened about four years ago. Razon his the miner that supplies Stefan with his fuel. Usually Razon supplies peat, but recently he found a dark vein of coal which is what we see Stefan using now. Olaf Bell is a person in the town that sells items to Radu the merchant. After buying and selling items to Stefan, well except Thulnir who’s hide armor is apparently of dwarven craftsmanship and Stefan refuses to purchase it.

Then the party heads to Baba Dania house. This looks like a place, Charles could spend some time talking with Baba about her skills in nature and maybe learn a thing or two. Baba provides more insight into Lena’s history. Kiren brings up her sand and the veins she witnessed. Baba thinks they are mold until she is shown Kiren’s sand. Then she believes that maybe it is termites or something that was mutated or warped. Kiren also mentions in passing that she had nightmares the night before. Mutu lets her know that if she wants he is willing to watch over her like he did with Charles the night before. Both Charles and Kiren are surprised and creeped out a bit by the automatons willingness to watch over sleeping party members. Thulnir also watched Charles sleep. Charles is beginning to worry about some oddity the two have. Thinking back they both took the first watch to let Kiren and Charles sleep. Odd bit of sleeping fetish maybe. Baba confirmed and added little information to Johan other than he wanted to exact his pound of flesh, further riling up the dwarf and his odd conspiracy theory. Olaft is brought up by Baba, he apparently sells items he finds in the church to Radu. She confirms that the Beast has been around a long time. When the party tries to bring up the gate tattoo she refused to talk about it. She does have some valuable tattoos available should the party ever be able to come up with the gold to pay for them.

Having restocked supplies and found new gear the party decides to return to the church. They proceed down into the depths and get to the door where the ghost attacked the party. After using the cold steel key to unlock the door, the party moved into the next room. As the room opens into a large space, Kiren spots a rotting hand that is about to attack Charles. The hand is mottled, and blackened with age. The party successfully defeats the hand and finds a ring with the same engraving that Stefan says he put on the ring Lena wore. The party looks forward, they see a large disturbed urn in an alcove and get an uncomfortable feeling that they are being watched.

Did we ever do a check on the hand to see how it was animated?