The village of Prumen

[Manzanita]

Solomon Kreel

Solomon enters Broyar quite upset. He is motivated enough to first find the others. He is happy to hear that the children are safe. As soon as Jaspar and Oculus are finished with their conversations, he'll approach them and show them what he took from Frendor's office.

"Can either of your recognize this language? This book has pictures of that rock we found in the field near the sniper. Marcus asked me to give it to the counselor. Against my better judgement, I agreed. Yet somehow Frendor may have had it."

OOC: Does it look like the drawings were fresh, as though Frendor made them? Or more like he found a book with pictures of it in it?

"One of the militia men I encountered in Frendor's house had something in his hand. A small rock or piece of jewlry. Perhaps the very rock in question. If so, that would indicate that the counselor gave it to Frendor and he might be in on the conspiracy. That might account for his complete absense from the village. I would like to speak to his children more about that day. They are afraid of me, I think. Perhaps they could be approached by someone else who wasn't as scary."

"As for the tapestry, what do you make of this? And Oculus, have you read any of that journal I gave you?"

 

[silentspace]

Solomon enters Broyar quite upset. He is motivated enough to first find the others. He is happy to hear that the children are safe. As soon as Jaspar and Oculus are finished with their conversations, he'll approach them and show them what he took from Frendor's office.

"Can either of your recognize this language? This book has pictures of that rock we found in the field near the sniper. Marcus asked me to give it to the counselor. Against my better judgement, I agreed. Yet somehow Frendor may have had it."

OOC: Does it look like the drawings were fresh, as though Frendor made them? Or more like he found a book with pictures of it in it?

"One of the militia men I encountered in Frendor's house had something in his hand. A small rock or piece of jewlry. Perhaps the very rock in question. If so, that would indicate that the counselor gave it to Frendor and he might be in on the conspiracy. That might account for his complete absense from the village. I would like to speak to his children more about that day. They are afraid of me, I think. Perhaps they could be approached by someone else who wasn't as scary."

"As for the tapestry, what do you make of this? And Oculus, have you read any of that journal I gave you?"

Oculus will examine all the material given to him, and show them to Jasper as well. If they are unable to decipher them, he will prepare Comprehend Languages in the morning. [Divine spell, dropping Command]

OOC: Oculus' relevant stats:
Knowledge Arcana +10, Knowledge History +9, Knowledge Nature +11, Knowledge Nobility +9, Knowledge Planes +10, Knowledge Religion +13

Languages: Mergovian, Axyrian, Celestial, Abyssal, Infernal, Draconic

Lore +7

 

[DarkMaster]

OOC I also forgot to mention that the northern bridge was never destroyed and you crossed it on your way to Broyar.

 

[Kangaxx]

Jasper Conrad

Jasper will also look over the materials Solomon brings in. "Oculus would probably have better, uh, luck talking to the children than I would. Hmm... when you found this stone, did it look like the sniper dropped it, or it just happened to be laying nearby?"

relevant skills: Knowledge(history) +10, knowledge(arcanna) +13, decipher script +8

 

[Manzanita]

Solomon Kreel

Solomon answers Jaspar. "We found this stone in the field, about where the mayor's brother appears to have been killed. He seems to have been walking out of town, when this sniper killed him. The sniper then dragged his body into town, where it was set upon by virulent rats. Whether the stone was dropped by the sniper or by the man, who can say?"

"In fact. Not much of these recent events make much sense. I think we should all share what we know. I spent some time talking to Marcus, and I learned some interesting things."

"This man, Gror, who was new the the militia, was the one who initially told Marcus where to find the body of the mayor's brother. Later we learn he beheaded the mayor. It seems likely that he was involved w/this sniper. Marcus told me that the captain told him not to hunt down the sniper, suggesting it was just an orc. Likely the captain also was in on the conspiracy, and the death of the mayor's brother was part of this."

"The sniper herself had strange runes on her armor and necklace. Did any of you keep that platnum necklace? We should try to research the meaning of that symbol. I supect it is related to the ancient tattooed witches of the north who helped the humanoids there resist the incursions of the Mergovian kings. The sniper herself was a witch, perhaps. They were said to be able to control animals, which would explain the presense of the voracious rats. Legends of Pruman mention that many of these witches were burned hundreds of years ago near Pruman. I wonder if the lumber camp might have been accidently located over that very location. I would like to pay that place another visit.”

“Does anyone else have any information that could shed light on these weird events?

 

[DarkMaster]

Oculus opens Jessica's diary, he quickly flip through the pages to get to the end of the diary. The diary mostly talk about the her day to day life, her relation with her mother that is getting better as she is getting older, how she is happy to work with her father. How tortured she is between her love interest and her father. The last paragraph seems interesting, she talks about traveling to Mornonas to meet the baron. Her father will meet with the Baron to get some staffing and financial help to keep the business afloat. The councellor will accompagny them to help them coping with the etiquette. She beleives that the councellor with his good manner and etiquette should be able to convince the Baron to provide her father with what he needs.

Oculus looking at the soldier remembers how agile and sneaky they were during their trip in the forest. They were obviously trained for special operations were smaller almost invisible combat units are needed.

Occulus and Jasper starts reading the book that was brought back by Solomon. The books seems extremely old, it is all handwritten. Who ever wrote had great Caligraphic skills. The book is all written in an ancient form of Abyssal. Jasper knows that this form of language has not been used since at least 400 years. Both Oculus and Jasper are unable to properly decipher the books. It seems to talk about the five houses, they noticed that there is also five pictures of different rocks drawn in the books. Each of these rocks looks exactly like the one Solomon found in the field. The books also seems to explain various ritual of an unknown god and was probably written a few hundred years ago.

They can both clearly identify the five rocks drawn in the middle of the worn out piece of art. They are located exactly in the center of the tapestry. Each of the scene seems to represent various religious rituals. Blood pact among peers, Outer planes evocations, ritual of the dead, ritual of birth, ritual of blood, trading of the souls, some kind of initiatic passage, control of the humans and beasts.

As Oculus eyes are wondering through the huge image, he notices that all the human character were cloacked women, most of them have their face hidden under an heavy cloack. The tapestry is quite damaged and it is difficult to see what were once extremely precise details. His eyes stop on the central image the cloacked women near the five rocks doesn't have her hood on. After a few seconds of intense observation he discerns that her faces is covered with tatooes , but what is even more chocking is that they are exactly the same as Valeria's tatoo. Still under shock Occulus pauses his investigation for a moment.

Jasper recognises these rituals. He remembers reading about the lost gods, the book was written by an old priest giving history class at the unversity in Mornonas and was extremely interesting. The man spent his entire life searching the planet to finds clue about the existence and impacts of the lost gods. The men was called Trimussion Bruy.

He is not sure anymore but he think the rituals belong to a mother godess of earth. The godess was unpredictable and very violent. Torture, canibalism, free violence, vengance at all costs were frequent among their followers. Only women were allowed to become priest. Some say that she could be Loth's mothers. The 8 rituals seems to be well represented. He doesn't remember reading anything about the five houses. He also remembers a part of the book talking about how wide spreads were her followers.

Jasper takes a good look at the dagger brought back by Solomon. It bears the symbol of the fiery snake, the same symbol can be found at the begining of the book and on the tapestry. This is probably the godess symbol.

The night is quickly falling. You are all currently in Jasper rooms studying the artefact and discussing about the next course of action. Solomon uses his stone of continual light to keep the places lit.

 

[DarkMaster]

OOC Also if I forgot to answer any of your questions in the above text let me know

 

[Manzanita]

Solomon Kreel

"Frendor, Jessica and the Counselor had business in Mornonas, and none were at the fatefull meeting in Pruman where everyone was slaughtered. That must be our next step. We must find the Temple of Helm there and try to capture the counselor. HE is the most guilty one, I think."

 

[DarkMaster]

OOC sorry I am still confused with the Gods, replace Helm by Hereionous

 

[silentspace]

Oculus, cleric/wizard

OOC: What are the names of the two troops guarding us? Farimond's troops. If it looks like it will be helpful, Oculus will prepare Comprehend Languages in the morning.

Oculus' head was swimming with visions of Valeria's tattoos. He wasn't sure quite what to make of it.

Oculus looks at Solomon. "Capture the councilor? How about we start with just finding and questioning him? If you have further ideas, please share them with us."

"I understand your feelings toward Jessica." Valeria, are you a witch? "But I think we need to learn more before taking decisive, possibly mistaken, action. The children are safe for now, so let's talk about what our next course of action should be."

"Those rituals on the tapestry... I don't know what to make of them, and would like to learn more. Perhaps the town militia believed they were doing a good and honorable thing in killing the children. I would feel better if we could learn more about them. How can we learn more? Is there a local sage, or library, or bard that knows these old stories?"

"Solomon, it seems like you know many of the murderers here. Perhaps you can go undercover among them and learn more about their motivations in the killings? There must be very powerful reasons when people take such extreme actions, like killing defenseless children. It should be a simple matter of finding out from the survivors who among the villagers of Prumen were among the murderers."

"There is also the immediate problem of the goblins at the bridge, no? Are they still there? I suspect there are answers to be found there, as well as at the goblin fort. What is the fort for? The tapestries show tattooed women leading goblin forces. Could the goblins be allied with the witches?"

"Are there witches? Is there a conspiracy of women conducting strange rituals and causing great evil in the land? We've seen no proof of any. No crimes that were allegedly committed by them. Not even any rumors of any, have we?"

"If there are witches, and the goblins are there allies, then we may have stumbled into the middle of a conflict with witches/goblins on one side and militia on the other. I'm not sure I want to join either side without learning what the conflict is all about."

Oculus sits and rubs his temples, clearly distraught.

OOC: Is there anyone here who needs healing? If so, Oculus will provide it.