Carrion Crown Episode #4: Party 3, Harrowstone 0

We finally got back into the swing of things with Pathfinder last night, after a short hiatus. As we left things, our colleague Doctor Pruce, a half-crazed alchemist, had seemingly been slain by the spectre of the Charlatan, a deceased con man haunting the ruins of Harrowstone prison near the hamlet of Ravengro. The Charlatan had apparently hijacked an attempt by the cleric Veneticus to Cure Light Wounds on the fallen Pruce, using the cleric to channel negative energy into the good doctor, and kill him on the spot (Pruce was already badly injured in a fight with another ghost, the Executioner).

We began the session in the middle of a battle with the Charlatan, who had chosen to manifest and fought with the paladin of Iomedae, Sir Erudil. Meanwhile, the spectre of Pruce rose to attack Veneticus. In an act of desperation, Veneticus hit the ghost of Pruce with his mace, only to realise that in fact it was Pruce himself, healed by the Charlatan, but then disguised as a ghost via an illusion spell. Down went Pruce again!

Brevan gets a bead on the Charlatan

The Charlatan, however, was dispatched shortly afterwards by a magic ghost touch arrow shot by the ranger Brevan, and Pruce was restored with healing magics. The adventurers returned to town to rest up and restore spells, leaving Pruce to continue to explore the prison on his own (his player was away in Manchester).

Further research was conducted into the books of the recently deceased Professor Lorrimer, but little new was learned about the ghosts of Harrowstone. Nicodemus tried to use the spellbook of the Splatterman to hit out at the ghost, possibly by removing his name from its pages, but it proved to no avail. The necromancer ignored Veneticus' suggestion that the cursed tome by tossed into the fire. It was decided that the ghosts would probaby still need to be physically confronted, as similar efforts with the Charlatan's holy symbols had also failed.

Can you smell something burning?

Returning to the ruined prison, the adventurers now descended into the dungeon level, having cleared out the other two levels. Our first encounter was with some haunts, namely two creatures that rose out of a flooded section of the dungeon. After these were dealt with, the party fought some flaming skeletons which were able to do some considerable damage by simply standing in proximity to the party (although they also had active attacks). Channelling from Veneticus and Nicodemus inflicted substantial damage on the undead), and Sir Erudil is coming into his own with his Lucerne hammer, making him a lethal opponent.

Our first serious encounter of the night was with a headless flaming skeletion which was again able to inflict heavy proximity burn damage, plus was handing out some fairly serious damage with its Power Attack. This was the first time Erudil was reduced to zero hit points (although still standing). The monster was, however, taken down after Veneticus compelled it to retreat and then Erudil smashed it with his hammer on the opportunity attack, his last action before blacking out. This encounter forced the party to return to Ravengro to rest up.

It is becoming obvious that each night the Splatterman is possessing a villager and writing another letter of Vasoria's name on the monument in the town, and that we are living on borrowed time. Exactly what happens when he completes her name is anyone's guess, but it seems that Vasoria is the only thing preventing the ghosts of Harrowstone from escaping completely.

Who's next for the chop, eh?

Returning to the ruins, we continued to explore, and next ran into another of the main cabal of ghosts, the Lopper. He proved singularly hard to defeat, inflicting severe damage on the valiant Sir Erudil, who again went toe-to-toe with the ghost, wielding its hatchet (a +1 hand axe) in an effort to destroy it. We were hard-pressed on this one - with Sir Erudil at one stage urging retreat. Braven and Veneticus buffed the paladin using Cure Light Wounds and our magic wand to keep him in the fight, and the Lopper was finally brought down.

At this point in the evening we realised the clocks were going back in the UK, as British Summer Time ended, and that we technically had an EXTRA HOUR TO GAME! We carried on with our exploration, and duly encountered the Mosswater Marauder, the fourth of the cabal of spectres were are looking to banish. He was the ghost of a dwarf, supported with three flying skulls that screamed blue murder and quite unnerved poor Brevan, who proceeded to attack - and miss - Nicodemus while the necromancer remained totally oblivious to the ranger. Brevan then came to his senses! The Mosswater Marauder proved somewhat easier to take down than the Lopper, with Veneticus destroying all his flying skulls using channelling, and indirectly inflicting 15 hit points on the ghost. Veneticus now has a magic mace +1 for his troubles, which should make future encounters with spectres a little easier.

We ended the game with the tired party trekking back to Ravengro to level up to third (we were one XP short of third, and there was talk of finding a rat to stamp on, but the GM was kind), painfully aware that we still have to face down the Splatterman!