Lost Trails: The Harrowdale Horror: Part 8

[Adam]

Bennedict tucks the charcoal pencil back into his notebook and stands, walking out into the light to greet the returning soldiers.

He raises his hand in greeting. "Hello. We're glad to report that the town is more or less rid of the recent troubles you encountered. Have you managed to collect most of your townsfolk?"

[ewancummins]

Bennedict tucks the charcoal pencil back into his notebook and stands, walking out into the light to greet the returning soldiers.

He raises his hand in greeting. "Hello. We're glad to report that the town is more or less rid of the recent troubles you encountered. Have you managed to collect most of your townsfolk?"

Captain Dalton answers,
"The Burghers have got things organized now, with many of the city-folk gathered at Velarsburg and the rest quartered in the upcountry villages and farmsteads. Still there are quite a few missing persons... I mean to sweep the city house to house, finding the slain and any hidden survivors. If monsters remain, we'll have to drive them away or destroy them before the people can safely return. I have a larger force bivouacked not too far away, which I hope will be enough for the task, but I'd appreciate any further aid you could give. ''

[Adam]

"You should know that the small, plantlike creatures many of your people saw were not the source of your town's trouble, but rather a symptom," Bennedict continues. "We have forged a tenuous peace with them. They are to have left your village, but I would caution your men to be wary of them. Any hostility could set things back off again."

[ewancummins]

"You should know that the small, plantlike creatures many of your people saw were not the source of your town's trouble, but rather a symptom," Bennedict continues. "We have forged a tenuous peace with them. They are to have left your village, but I would caution your men to be wary of them. Any hostility could set things back off again."

''A truce, eh?"
Captain Dalton scowls. "I dislike just letting the monsters go free, but I'd be a fool to waste time and maybe men's lives skirmishing with the green men if it delays finding the missing and recovering the city. And if you say the creatures were not the cause of all this madness, I'll take you at your word. What do you know about the true source, then? Who did this to Harrowdale, how, and why?"

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Klokulf approaches and weighs in: "The exact culprit and its motivations are not fully clear. We did drive away a witch who occupied this keep, and we have kept watch for her return."

[kintire]

Katrin stays quietly in the background when confronted with authority, partly to avoid attention and partly to keep an eye on the portal in case something uses this distraction...

[Adam]

"Most of the details eluded us. I wish we had managed to capture the culprit, but I can tell you what we found."

He details what they discovered, telling them everything they've found and showing some of the sketches of the less plausible things he had made in his notebook.

[ewancummins]

"Most of the details eluded us. I wish we had managed to capture the culprit, but I can tell you what we found."

He details what they discovered, telling them everything they've found and showing some of the sketches of the less plausible things he had made in his notebook.

Captain Dalton pays very close attention to Benn's story. He only interrupts a couple of times, asking for clarification of this or that matter.

Immediately after Benn finishes talking, Dalton makes notes of his own in a travel-worn journal he retrieves from his napsack.

''Good, good..This may all be of considerable help. It's always good to have information.''


The Captain informs the party that as they have cleared at least this part of Halvan's Keep of monsters he will use this area as an outpost, eventually relocating his headquarters here if the Keep proves monster-free.

''I expect the work of searching the city to take several days. Stay and help and I can promise you each a militiaman's pay. Not much, but it'll mean food, drink, a place to sleep and a little coin paid out at the end of the job. If you mean to leave right off, I understand. Of course I'm letting the ruling burghers know how much you have already done for Harrowdale, and I am sure that they will offer some sort of reward, though I cannot say what that might be. "

[Lord Skybolt]

Katrin stays quietly in the background when confronted with authority, partly to avoid attention and partly to keep an eye on the portal in case something uses this distraction...

Alain as well is staying in the background for purposes of guarding the portal, as he considers that Benn is handling the authorities just fine .

[alhoon]

Raen introduced himself to the graycloaks and Captain Dalton.
"Greetings, I am Raen. I am a wizard and I have worked in an urban settlement as assistant to the local law enforcers in the past. I would like to help you secure the city and make sure it's safe. Beyond food and lodging in a tent or cleaned building, payment is not strictly necessary but it would be appreciated."

[ewancummins]

CAPTAIN DALTON replies to Raen,
"I'll pay you and your friends nonetheless, though it will only be a small wage. I insist on that much. But I thank you for your selflessness and public spirit, sir mage."


LATER...

The next few days afford the party several opportunities to investigate things further and to conclude its affairs locally…

Gubbio, whom the party had found hiding in the mercantile office, uses his authority as factor to confirm the purchase and delivery of all the whale oil from the ship that brought the party hither.
The ship’s master promptly refunds the party’s travel expenses, as promised.

Alwina returns ashore to join the heroes at the Keep. The young woman hangs close to Klokulf, helping him in whatever small ways she can.

Willun the fisherman and his son, Randal, obtain work as naval auxiliaries for the militia—a fancy way of saying they land jobs rowing the party and Dalton’s men about the harbor, to and from the lighthouse island, and north or south along the beaches and bluffs near the city. When they aren’t doing this work, they fish and prepare food.

Captain Dalton allows the party considerable leeway in conducting operations. He does, of course, remind everyone concerned that the property of the residents of Harrowdale must be protected against looting and unnecessary damage and that treasures found in the lairs of monsters should be gathered at the Keep for safekeeping and proper disposition later.

But in the course of searching the town and nearby countryside, the adventurers find little treasure (unless they violate orders and loot homes) and no monsters. The plant-men have vanished. No such abominations as haunted the now-torched Temple of Tymora emerge from the cellars, abandoned houses, or derelict shops the investigators enter armed and ready.

A few bedraggled survivors emerge from hiding, grateful and relieved at sight of the militiamen and adventurers. Their testimony sheds little light on events, except that they all agree the strange laughing madness began during the harvest festival.

The adventurers do find two more patches of the disgusting, rust-hued fungus that sickened Raen and nearly killed the acolyte, Perielle. One fungal mass grows in a farm’s polluted springhouse and another in a pub’s taproom, both cool, damp, dark places. With care taken to avoid inhaling the dangerous spores and employing spells and ad hoc anti-fungal concoctions-—acid seems to work best—-the team cleanses the infestations. In both tainted areas, they find rotted clothing and a few fragments of bone. No bodies, though.

Indeed, the city does not seem to contain a single intact corpse.

After four days, Captain Dalton declares the first part of the operation complete and dispatches orders for a larger body of men to join his small force at the Keep. He thanks the adventurers and pays each of them a gold coin for services rendered.

Klokulf, who has taken time to study the portal, prepares an offering of maggoty ‘corrupt flesh’ in anticipation of a swift passage through the magical gate to Yulash.



The Harrowdale people the party rescued or aided: Willun and Randal, Perielle, and Gubbio, gather at the Keep to wish the adventurers a good voyage.

Willun and Randall bring a gift, a canvas bag full of smoked fish.

Gubbio gives each adventurer a new cloak. He also gives Katrin a pair of boots that fits her (to replace the boot she discarded after it was polluted with the remains of the babbling abomination at the Temple of Tymora.)

Perielle bestows upon Benn a coin-like pendant engraved with a woman’s smiling face ringed by clovers.

Before the party departs via the gateway in the Keep dungeons, Captain Dalton hastens to present them with just-arrived gifts from the ruling burghers: scrolls of honorary citizenship and a coffer packed with medicines, herbs, and spices.

[alhoon]

Raen was happy with the way the events turned out and for the help he was able to provide. He thanks the fishermen for the smoked fish and captain Dalton for his leadership. He also shakes the hand of every survivor (even the ones that they found in the city) or graycloak that allows it.

[ewancummins]

Captain Dalton says to Raen and the others, "I hope that your party will return someday to enjoy the gratitude of the people. But wherever your path leads you, go with my prayers and deep respect. Farewell, friends."

When the good-byes have been said and all stands ready, the citizens of Harrowdale leave the adventurers.

Working by torchlight, the party's spell-casters perform the unwholesome ritual of portal-opening, and presently the stony mouth opens.

One by one, the heroes of Harrowdale crawl through the gullet of the Hand-that-Hungers...

END OF THE HARROWDALE HORROR


to be continued in
LOST TRAILS: YULASH