LOST TRAILS 8: The Harrowdale Horror, part 2

[kintire]

Katrin glances at Benn.

"Perhaps it might be wise if a bit of scouting took place? I might be able to check out these places and see what is going on there. I wouldn't want to get too far away from support, of course, but it might give a bit of advanced warning"

[Adam]

"Maybe we can do both," Benn says to the group. "We'll have a look around near the hall for a safe place, while Kat scouts ahead?"

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain listens to the party talk nodding in agreement most of time(quarantining, scouting ahead of the party as such) . He thinks keeping rear guard scout has worked out so far so will do that .

[alhoon]

Raen seems to be more comfortable now that a few basic suggestions and plans of action are being laid out, simple as they may be.
"I also think a little scouting ahead would be beneficial." he said to Kat with a smile. He tried to not think about the last time he went ahead to scout, only to be mauled by a monstrous dog.
"So, let's move on then"

[ewancummins]

THE PARTY investigates fields and homes along the way to the Civic Hall, travelling across the southeastern farms and then up the road from the south. Katrin scouts ahead. Alain hangs in the rear, looking backward often, keeping a lookout for any foes that might creep up on the adventurers from behind.

As the main body of the group draws near the soot-smeared masonry walls of the Temple of Tymora, Willun points at a road spur running east to the seashore and the piers.
“My boat’s moored there. Or it was…”
He shrugs.
“I can make out some vessels, at least. If trouble started, I could put my boy and the maiden- “
-He glances at Alwina-
“aboard and row out to sea. That way, we would not get trapped in a building by monsters surrounding the place.”

[kintire]

Katrin moves through the ruined town, carefully and quietly. She pays particular attention to any areas that seem overgrown, or cluttered, or otherwise present cover, partly to check them for enemies and partly to identify them for her own use!

As they approach their goal, she deos a cirle around the building, checking the perimeter before venturing inside

[Adam]

THE PARTY investigates fields and homes along the way to the Civic Hall, travelling across the southeastern farms and then up the road from the south. Katrin scouts ahead. Alain hangs in the rear, looking backward often, keeping a lookout for any foes that might creep up on the adventurers from behind.

As the main body of the group draws near the soot-smeared masonry walls of the Temple of Tymora, Willun points at a road spur running east to the seashore and the piers.
“My boat’s moored there. Or it was…”
He shrugs.
“I can make out some vessels, at least. If trouble started, I could put my boy and the maiden- “
-He glances at Alwina-
“aboard and row out to sea. That way, we would not get trapped in a building by monsters surrounding the place.”

Bennedict nods, gratefully. "Clever. Very good. I think you that is a fine plan."

He looks down at the boy. "Plus, you have this stout fellow to help defend you, if any vicious plant men try to stop you from getting to the boat, eh?" He gives him a small smile and ruffles his hair.

He turns to look towards their next destination, letting any necessary preparations be completed before leaving to rendezvous with Kat.

[alhoon]

Raen nods as well but keeps his eyes on the road and surroundings.
"Do you have food and water to last for say a day?" he asked absentmindedly.

[ewancummins]

Raen nods as well but keeps his eyes on the road and surroundings.
"Do you have food and water to last for say a day?" he asked absentmindedly.

''No, but we can use a jug to collect rain and I can always catch fish.''
No sooner than Willun gives this answer, a shower begins-- big, fat, cold raindrops splattering down from the cloudy gray sky.

[ewancummins]

KATRIN

CIVIC HALL


Katrin reaches the civic hall, a big though not very tall ( single-story though maybe with a crawlspace below and a short attic above) building of timber and masonry. It squats atop a low hill off the road, set apart from other buildings.
A long wooden portico runs across the hall's front.

The gardens around the building have been stripped down to bare, upturned earth and patches of brown grass.


From the outside, it appears intact apart from a broken window and some busted shutters in the front. The stained, ripped curtain moves slowly in and out the broken glass rectangle as if some huge beast were hiding within, breathing on the cloth.


The front door seems to be locked and also barred from inside.
She could crawl through the window if she does not feel squeamish about the reddish-brown clumps of slime dripping from the torn curtain and hanging shutter panels.

There's a back door, too, left ajar...

[kintire]

Kat stares for a long moment at the window. However, after the previous battle with mouth filled mucus, she does feel rather squeamish about the slime. She slips around to the back door, presses her back to the building.s wall and takes a swift peek within. If she sees nothing alarming, she then crouches and takes a longer look, her head reemerging at a different place than it was drawn back. If it seems safe, she checks the hinges of the door for likely creaking, and makes her way cautiously inside

[ewancummins]

KATRIN ALONE IN THE TOWN HALL

Kat stares for a long moment at the window. However, after the previous battle with mouth filled mucus, she does feel rather squeamish about the slime. She slips around to the back door, presses her back to the building.s wall and takes a swift peek within. If she sees nothing alarming, she then crouches and takes a longer look, her head reemerging at a different place than it was drawn back. If it seems safe, she checks the hinges of the door for likely creaking, and makes her way cautiously inside

The hinges creak but not loudly.
Katrin finds a dim, musty room with casks and boxes stacked on the floor and on low shelves.
Opening the shutters on the window open gives her light and fresh air.
A door stands slightly ajar at the far end of the room.
Looking about the supplies, she finds wine, brown ale, oil, vellum, flour, cheese, nails, canvas, rope, and dried fish.
One crate partly covers a trap door near the outer wall. Moving the box and investigating the hatch, she uncovers a shallow cellar about ten feet square. This underground space smells moldy and damp, and reddish stains creep over the lime-washed walls and floor, with big clumps of rust-brown fuzzy growth almost hiding the three large chests stacked near open space under the hatchway.

Apart from the trapdoor to the cellar, Katrin notices a closed wooden door on the main floor, opposite the way she entered.
Checking this interior doorway, she finds it lets into one of the front rooms of the town hall.
Just past the door to her eight, in the corner, a brick fireplace with a tin chimney pipe running up through the ceiling stands cold and sooty, a little ash spilled out onto the stone floor at its base.
Straight ahead across the spacious room she sees the broken window she saw out front. Little light penetrates the tangled curtains snagged on broken glass, just enough to show the vague outline of furniture, darkened rectangles of doors on all four walls, and some light colored squares affixed to an upright board set apart from the wall ahead and to the left. Squinting, she realizes these are papers or parchments tacked to a bulletin.
The curtains and notices flutter to the soft exhalations of cold air coming through the fireplace with a faint whistling sound. A little puff of wood-ash she can smell but not see almost makes her sneeze.
(In her chambermaid days, she came across more than one dirty floor caused by a flue carelessly left open).

Checking the various doors in this front room, she finds that the double doors near the window are barred and locked. She can lift the bar, but opening the lock might take some time-it's well-made. These are obviously the front doors she viewed from outside, though, and let onto the wooden portico.

Moving past a long desk built along part of the front wall , she comes to a door at the far, darkened end of the room. Not locked. A faint glow shows through the keyhole.
Openly it cautiously she sees sunlight filtered through a curtained window in a smaller room.
Creeping inside and opening the curtain, she finds she's in a records office. Lots of papers, ledgers, scrolls, Not ransacked, though a few loose items lie on the floor.

Back into the lobby and then to the rear wall, she discovers doors along the rear wall leading into two more rooms,which, once she has opened shutters and curtains, she sees are an meeting chamber or courtroom with tables and an office with desks and bookshelves.


The third door on the rear wall of the lobby is the one she came through from the back corner room for storage and cellar access.


On the side of the lobby closer the storage room, between the brick fireplace and the bulletin board, Katrin finds another door, this one set in an angled section of the wall.
It's locked, but she's able to spring the mechanism after a little bit of work.
Inside, she finds a shadowy office near the front of the building and, beyond a waist-high wooden dividing rail with a gap in the middle, two iron-barred jail cells in the back.

As Katrin pulls curtains and opens shutters to let in light and air, she becomes aware of someone else breathing heavily in the room.

Then, tittering laughter from the shadows.

"Tehhheeehhheeehehheheeee."

Turning to look into the jail area, she sees a pale-faced, dark-haired woman dressed in torn, dirty clothes getting up from underneath a cot and scuttling to the cell front. The woman jerks upright and thrusts her arms through the bars.
The stranger hisses,
"Come here! I want to tell you something, but softly, softly... They mustn't hear. They are always listening. Come here. I won't hurt you. I promise."


https://imgur.com/gallery/lJ4WQiX

[kintire]

Katrin gives a careful look at the strange woman, but she moves no closer. After a moment, in fact, she slides swiftly away. First rule of scouting: Scout. Do not try to solve things yourself.

She heads back to the back door, still silently and warily, and makes her way back to the others to report

[ewancummins]

KATRIN

Katrin gives a careful look at the strange woman, but she moves no closer. After a moment, in fact, she slides swiftly away. First rule of scouting: Scout. Do not try to solve things yourself.

She heads back to the back door, still silently and warily, and makes her way back to the others to report

The strange woman laughs madly as Katrin retreats from the room.

Katrin hears a pattering noise from a window as she heads for the back door, and, sure enough, she finds that it's raining when he looks out the back door.

By the time she reaches the main body of her party, her hair is clinging damply to her face and neck (she discarded her cloak after it was stained in the battle against the Thing at the temple).

The party stands huddled under an awning of a shop, within sight of the wharves.

OTHERS

It did not take long to find Willun's boat.

The fisherman wanted to see if he can find some supplies in a nearby shop ("I'll leave a note for the owner, about payment.") before he goes back to his small vessel, moored at the pier.
The shop's awning provides some shelter.
The front door is locked and the broad, heavy wooden shutters are pulled down and locked.


Alain, who had acted as rearguard on the hike into town, afterward remained within sight of the Civic Hall, where Katrin went to scout.
He came back a minute ago with the news that Katrin was on her way.


Katrin has just now returned, damped by the rainstorm but looking unhurt.

[kintire]

Katrin speaks to the others but her eyes waner to the shop, assessing it for potential on the cloak-selling front.

"Well, the place is almost empty. There is an odd red mold about the place, but it doesn't seem to be mouthy or mobile. There is a woman locked in the cells though. She looks more than a little nuts, but she said she had something to tell me if I came closer. I was considering it, but she said she wouldnt hurt me which is always a bad sign. I can take you too her if you want"

She seems to be looking mostly at Benn as she says this last.