22 Kythorn 1491

Session 13, 1/15/2021

In the morning Torson Drayer was doing much better, but was still quite exhausted. Before reuniting him with his son we questioned him a bit about why he was being held in the asylum.

He said he had heard stories/rumors from ex-patients and staff about an evil spirit that lived in the lower floor of the asylum. When he went to talk to Kohren Vhost about it, Kohren imprisoned him. Kohren claim’s it was because Torson was delusional, but Torson believes it was because Kohren was afraid Torson would expose some of his more questionable activities.

While imprisoned in the basement of the asylum, Torson say the evil spirit himself. It seemed to not only delight in the pain and suffering of the patients, but to actually feed off of it. This made sense to use since we had seen and killed a spirit while in the basement. We thought maybe this was the spirit Torson was talking about.

After hearing his story and determining that he would need some time for recovery we decided that we would help Torson out by renting him a room at the inn for a week and paying someone to watch over him. That way he would be close by his son,Kevin Drayer, and they could be reunited, but there would be no concern of him being abducted a second time.

After reuniting Kevin and Torson and arranging for a guard we headed out. The first stop was to visit Constable Hawthorne. We reported an abridged version of the night’s activities and that Merron Kharga was released. The good constable was very concerned that the serial killer was back on the streets and very unhappy that Kohren had not yet reported that fact. We told the constable we would return to the asylum and do our best to look into how Merron escaped.

We returned to the asylum and approached the front door. This time there were two guards in front of the building instead of two. We approached the front door and the automatons blocked our way in but did not move to attack. We yelled out that we needed to speak to Kohren Vhost about the release of the serial killer. We wanted about 5 minutes and the doors opened.

Kohren refused come out, but stood behind his guards and talked to us from there. It was not a pleasant conversation. Not only was Kohren extremely angry that we had invaded the asylum, but was completely enraged by how we had treated him. On top of that, he claimed that he believed we ourselves had released Merron and were to blame for the current events.

After a long conversation we finally convinced Kohren to allow us to inspect Merron’s cell under his supervision and for a max of 30 minutes. We went down in the basement and did our investigation. We found no hint of tampering with the cell lock of door and could find no hidden passages. Sylrel took the opportunity to speak to one of the nurses to see if anything unusual had happened lately, but nothing had, nor had the nurse ever seen any spirits or phantoms.

At this point we had run out of time and could find no explanation. We began to suspect that the spirit we had killed in the basement was not the one reported by Torson. We decided to return to the inn and speak to Torson some more and get more details on this spirit.

When we arrived at the inn there was a package waiting for us. Nobody was expecting anything to be delivered, so we were a bit taken back. We took the package and retired to a private room to open it. After making preparations, I placed the package on the floor and opened it and jumped back.

Inside the package were only two things. First, a wooden fox mask, similar to those worn by the locals at the Carnival of Bones. The second was an old knife. It appeared to be the same one used by Merron when he escaped and attacked us the night before.

There were two main thoughts about what the contents might signify. Professor Abernathy Macmilligan thought they may indicate that the owner of Dlens may have fallen victim to the murderer. And I thought it was more likely a threat/promise of a bloody night being planned for the Carnival.

We decided that we had two options at this point. Either attempt to track down Merron directly or deal first with the spirit that we were certain had freed him. I was in favor of dealing with the spirit, but the rest of the group thought that dealing with Merron first was the best course of action. So we decided that is what we would most likely do, but I would first cast an augury to determine if that would be a successful course of action.

I drew the proscribed runes on the floor and cast my tinker tools on them in order to try and gain a glimpse of the future while concentrating on the question. As everyone gathered around to watch as I tried to read the layout, blood began seeping up from the cracks in the floor until it had covered all the runes and tools. It then slowly receded leaving no trace.

Normally it takes some skill at interpretation of the signs, but this one needed no further explanation from me. We immediately decided to change our plans and try and deal with the spirit tonight. Since this would be a night time activity, we spent the rest of the day in rest.

Most of the group members spent their time in private, but I decided that I would spend my day in the common room feasting and drinking. While there I was approached by a stranger who offered to buy me a beer. Who can say no to that?

The stranger it turned out was a messenger sent to locate our group. His master, Jensen Windmeer, wanted to extend to us an open invitation to dinner at Windmeer Keep. Jensen is an ex-adventurer and former compatriot of Lorien Yost. I probed for any additional information or reason for the invite, but the messenger knew only that this master would like to meet us whenever we had the opportunity. I thanked the messenger and let him know that we were currently busy, but that if we had a spare day we would try and and make it out to the keep.

Session 14, 1/22/2021

That night, after resting the full day, we felt prepared to head out once more to the asylum. We approached the building, and just like earlier in the day, there were more guard posted out front than normal. After some thought, we decided we would sneak in the exact same way we did the previous night. It sounded foolhardy, but we figured they would not be prepared for it. Who would be stupid enough to break in through the same window two nights in a row?

We even followed the same procedure as the prior evening. I cast silence and we snuck through the yard and broke though the boarded up window into the same room. The room was empty, so we used the stairs and headed straight down to the lower levels. Once we got to the bottom of the stairs I dropped the silence spell and we got ready to proceed.

First, I clarified, we would try not to hurt any staff or patients. The mechanical guards were fair game and so was anything undead. Because of our desire not to cause any more harm than necessary, we decided we would listen to the doors and we went, and to start we would avoid any that sounded like the rooms were occupied and the activities were normal.
Following those rules, we avoided a number of doors. The sounds heard were quite unpleasant, but they sounded pretty normal considering the afflictions these poor people suffered from. We also saw and engaged one of the automatons and destroyed it.

Eventually we came upon the body of one of the nurses. She had been recently killed and an examination showed the cause of death to be from necrotic damage. We took this as a sure sign we were closing in on the shade, so we picked up the pace. However, even at our quickened tempo, we did still manage to search and office or two and find a patient folder on Merron Kharga. The Professor snagged that in case it would contain anything of use.

Finally, entering a hallway from a room, we spied our prey. Sadly, Evelios was in front of the group, but we had no time to rearrange and we jumped into action. Evelios, Sylrel and The Professor all opened up with their strongest attacks. They appeared to harm the beast, but it did not appear overly concerned. Then, it moved to attack. As I stated earlier, Evelios was in front of the group, so the creature reached out to him, draining the life force from his body. Before any one could react, Evelios dropped to the ground, his body lifeless. He had been killed in one, almost casual, attack.

Needles to say, we were all shocked, but time does not stand still. Not sure what else to do, and not wanting to leave Evelios’s body behind, I stepped forward to guard his body and cast Turn Undead, attempting to drive the creature away. I felt the presence of my god, and was sure the power should have worked, but the creature seemed to simply shrug off the effect. Sylrel and The Professor attacked as well, but again, the shade seemed almost unconcerned, as though we were barely harming it.

The shade then said “I gave you Khargra so you would leave me to my playthings; Tell Torson Drayer that I miss him dearly. In warn you against meddling with the Council.” and proceeded to float away though a wall. I did not know if I should be shocked and insulted at being dismissed as a mere distraction or thankful that the creature had other plans for the evening and that we had the chance to escape and live.

As soon as the creature was gone, I prayed to Moradin and beseeched him to return the spirit of Evelios to his body. With luck, he answered my prayer and Evelios opened his eyes and began to breath again. We helped him to his feet, but he seemed quite dazed. Not surprisingly, the experience had taken a bit out of him. We helped support him and we ran for the exit of the dungeon as fast as we could.

But that spiteful shade was not yet done with us. As we were on our way out, it appeared again at the end of a hallway. It just sat there, watching, seeming to enjoy the fear and panic it caused in us. We continue to run, and the last thing we heard was, “Remember, tell Torson I miss him dearly…”.

We came out of the basement at a full run, leaped through the window and ran for it. We passed Kohren Vost’s window in the garden and he looked shocked and angry at seeing us. The fear and adrenaline was pumping so high that The Professor even broke decorum and managed to salute Kohren with quite the obscene hand gesture.

Retuning to the inn we headed straight for our rooms, locked the doors and collapsed in our beds. That was not, in any way what so ever, how we had envisioned the evening going.