Welcome to Sandpoint
Prison!
All manner of evil
creatures and beasts housed here. NOW - See the creatures with your own eyes!
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ADVENTURER SPECIAL –
By order of Mayor Kendra Deverin, any adventurer who captures a villain,
henchman, or other human or nonhuman creature in league with the forces of evil
gets a chance to participate in the interrogation! NEW – New torture devices
available for your pleasure! Try them out!
Valeros was participating in the interrogation. As Rogors
Craesby was an undead, they hadn’t been able to get much of anything out of
him. But they were interrogating Farmer John, and he seemed to potentially have
useful information. He had revealed that whatever the force of evil was, it had
gotten to Aldern Foxglove, so he may be turning evil soon. Also, he revealed
that supernatural forces were haunting the area, which could make things more
difficult for explorers. During the interrogation he heard a sound of chimes from
behind.
“Congratulations! You’ve been randomly selected for a chance
at a special prize!”
Valeros turned around and saw a whole entourage of people –
some guards, a jester or two, a troubadour, and Lem.
“Presented by none other than the Mayor herself!”
Kendra Deverin stepped forward. “Just spin the prize wheel!”
Valeros spun the prize wheel but it landed in a blank space.
Lem sang:
Come on, Mayor Kendra,
let him try again!
If the heroes don’t
win this fight, the whole town might end!
She gave him another try. The prize wheel spun round and
round and landed on another blank space. The troubadour sang his song as well.
We really want our
heroes to win the big grand prize,
‘Cause the villain’s
out in force – on them we owe our lives!
The prize wheel went round and round and landed on the one
black space on the wheel. “Sorry,” said Mayor Kendra, “the black space is the
losing space. No more re-spins, no prize for you. Better luck next time!”
Oh, well, at least he could get back to the interrogation.
He called upon the blessings of the gods to see into Farmer John’s mind. He saw
that Farmer John was in league with the dark forces even more than he thought –
he knew a spell that could summon a zombie! The mind probing activated the
spell, and a zombie appeared – fortunately it was no match for Valeros. Further
investigation found that Farmer John dabbled in alchemy too – he knew a recipe
for a potion of hiding. Unfortunately, Valeros wasn’t good enough to follow the
recipe to make the potion.
In the meantime, Harsk was at the farmhouse continuing to
investigate. There was more to John and Matilda than they thought – perhaps
through looking here they could get more information about the villain. As
Harsk was exploring, he came across a mercenary who attacked him. A flaming
spell from Ezren and his crossbow easily disabled the mercenary. Harsk
approached the mercenary, put out the fire, and stood over him.
“If you want to live, tell me who hired you!” Harsk said.
The mercenary didn’t say. Instead, he tried to get up and
attack Harsk, forcing Harsk to slay him. His body disappeared and turned into
dark magical energy, which surrounded Harsk. Harsk felt a weight on his
shoulders. Then he felt an eerie sound, which could mean only one thing – a
werewolf! The werewolf howled and became stronger – Harsk had to use all his
power to defeat him. He felt the blessings of Erastil guide his bolt, and the
bolt hit the werewolf square in the eye, and he followed it up with a thrown
dagger, killing the werewolf.
He reported this to a sage he had met earlier on the way to
the farmhouse, and the sage went back with him to investigate. With Harsk’s
guidance, they were able to locate a ritual shrine that was apparenty the
source of the evil, at least in the local area. They reported this to the town
guard, and the town guard came into secure the shrine while the sage could
investigate. The sage found a mystic inscription, which was quickly taken by
the town guards for safekeeping. Oh, man,
we missed out on another treasure, Harsk thought. At least we didn’t have to fight any more monsters here, and we’ll have
more time to search the other locations.
Then his eyes opened. That was a hallucination. That wasn’t
happening at all. The haunt had taken over his mind as soon as he had killed
the mercenary. He was actually face to face with the evil Iesha Foxglove. He
tried to draw his weapon, but it was useless. Iesha cast a terrible spell at Harsk.
It filled his body with chills and his mind with fear. He dropped his crossbow
and ran, afraid even to look back. When he reached a safe distance he took
stock. He still had another dagger in his pouch, so he was at least still
armed. Soon, he got some backup – Lem arrived.
Lem cast a cure spell on Harsk – it didn’t have much effect,
but it was better than nothing. He saw a crowbar lying in a grate – remembering
what had happened last time he picked up a crowbar lying in a grate, he stayed
clear of this one. He saw a mace chained to a wall, but wasn’t strong enough to
break the chain. He kept going and ran into an enchanter! Lem tried to call
upon Erastil for guidance, but the enchanter’s force bolt interrupted the
ritual. Lem just pulled out his light crossbow and attacked, killing the
enchanter. Unfortunately as the enchanter was dying he threw out a fire bolt,
sending Lem’s crossbow up in flames.
In the meantime, Ezren was away from all the fighting and
was studying at the Academy. A lot of the classes had been canceled because the
professors were also adventurers and they were needed to help fight the evil,
but there was still some stuff going on. He sat in on Professor Balthazar’s
introductory class – most of the material was pretty basic for him, but you
never know what you can find. Balthaar was demonstrating the use of magic
detection. Since Ezren knew the detect magic spell in and out, he volunteered
to help demonstrate. Balthazar showed a line of drawers, and asked Ezren to
pick one. Ezren cast the detect magic spell, which led him to one of the
drawers, which he opened to reveal a Web scroll.
“So, you see, magic scrolls, such as this Web scroll,
produce magical energy which is detectable by spells,” Balthazar said.
Finally, a spell
that’s actually useful! I could have really used the Web to get away from that
werewolf last night, one of the students thought.
“As a reward for his mastery of the detect magic, I’ll let
our volunteer here have the web scroll.”
You mean we’re not
learning the spell? Come on, I paid good money for this!
The class soon ended, and Ezren quickly rushed out the back
door to avoid being mobbed by all the students who wanted to look at the web
scroll. He ran into a soldier standing guard, who he asked about the goings-on.
The soldier said that he had seen someone suspicious walking around, but before
he could investigate, he turned invisible. Ezren still had his detect magic up,
so he detected the magic and followed the invisible person, who entered the
library, and it turned out to be just a student practicing an invisibility
spell. The student said he had found something interesting deeper in the
library, and asked if Ezren wanted to help him investigate. He did, and found a
book that radiated a kind of evil picked it up. Ezren felt the evil come close,
and looked up to see Iesha Foxglove! Fortunately he remembered the invisibility
spell, and cast it, enabling him to escape.
Ezren noticed a poster on the wall:
The Sandpoint Academy
College of Adventuring is looking for research subjects for new adventuring
studies! Studies include testing out trap detection methods and magical
protective equipment. Subjects may be paid, including possible magical items!
Ezren went to the College of Adventuring building to
participate in some of the studies. He figured he could get some stuff, and
since villains often do experiments to test out plans for their evil schemes,
maybe he could get information on the villain there.
He got to the College of Adventuring building, and found
there were two studies going on that he qualified for. One was looking to see
how adventurer classes differ in their approach to traps, while another was
testing the performance of a magic ring. In the trap experiment, he was
presented with a trapped locker and expected to disarm it. Lem cast a speed
spell on him, and he felt Abadar’s favor, and was able to get past the trap,
and he opened up the chest and found a wooden shield. He was allowed to keep
the wooden shield as a reward, and the experimenter seemed surprised that a
wizard would be granted the favor of the gods – perhaps this was more support for
the theory that it was possible for party members to use blessings to aid other
party members separated by long distances. The next experiment tested a magic
ring, where they asked him to do sit-ups and push-ups while wearing a magic
ring to see how it affected his endurance. He was allowed to keep the ring as a
prize, but later found that the ring was just an ordinary band of no real value
– he must have been assigned to the control group.
---
Meanwhile, back at the prison, Farmer John had told him where
the evil was – it was within the prison itself! Valeros followed Farmer John’s
directions and found a pit trap! Fortunately with help from the gods he was
able to jump out of the way – but soon found himself face to face with Iesha
Foxglove! Iesha cast her evil spell, and he was chilled to the bone – he had to
run away. He would not get the chance to see what was here – the only hope was
to interrogate Farmer John some more. That would take time … would they have
it?
Harsk joined them, and himself searched through the
dangerous area of the prison. He heard a siren’s voice, but with aid from the
gods he recognized it for what it was, and wisely chose not to proceed further.
He chose a different path and was attacked by a goblin cutpurse, but was able
to kill it with a throw of his dagger. Lem came in and helped explore too, and they
went further into the tunnels. As they explored, Lem felt Father Zantus’ voice
speaking to him, and he felt better.
Ezren was on his way out of the College of Adventuring
building when he was stopped by another student, who showed him a scroll. “Do
you want to do a really cool experiment? Then come with me,” the student said
quietly, showing Ezren a scroll. This wasn’t one Ezren recognized, so he
followed him, hoping to learn some more.
“What’s so secret?” asked Ezren, as they walked outside the
campus.
“Look.” The student showed him a spell, and it looked like a
charm spell of some sort. “Testing mind-controlling magic is against IRB
regulations, so we have to do this away from the academy itself.”
“So you’re some kind of outlaw?”
“No. There’s nothing wrong with mind control. They approve
experiments to test combat spells, that kill people, why is mind-controlling
someone worse than killing them? It’s just stupid bureaucracy that we have to
get around. Everyone does it.”
Ezren wasn’t so sure, but still went along – a charm spell
could prove useful later on. They went into the woods and found a guide
exploring. “I’ve done this before, but I’m trying to test if the scroll is
written well enough that another wizard can look at it and reproduce the spell
effects,” the student said. “Can you try it?”
Ezren looked at the scroll, memorized the spell, put the
scroll away, and cast the spell on the guide. The guide was charmed, and agreed
to help them.
“Okay, it looks like the spell works. Thanks for your help.
I’m always trying to improve the spells; my office is in room 342 of the
College of Adventuring if you want to talk to me again.”
The student left quickly. Ezren made a note of this, perhaps
it would be useful later. But Ezren had explored the academy enough to know the
villain was not here – for now, he had to explore the rest of the town – the
clock was ticking.
Back at the prison, Valeros had returned to the
interrogation room to continue the interrogation. It looked like he was close
to making Farmer John crack.
“Okay, the villain had infiltrated the prison. That’s why
you saw all those monsters. There’s a secret stash under the floor over there.
That has the villain’s plans in it.”
This was actually a trick by Farmer John – he had been told
that the secret stash would trigger a trap that would distract the guards and
allow him to escape. But that wasn’t the case – Valeros opened the secret stash
by removing a loose stone, and found nothing in it.
“There’s nothing there!” Valeros said. Lem walked into the
room wheeling a new torture device.
“You’d better tell me the truth, or you
might be subjected to some enhanced interrogation techniques!”
“Okay, you’ve got me.” Farmer John drew a crude map of the
town and highlighted some places. “You know about the Skinsaw Murders? Aldern
Foxglove is the one who did it. He got infected with a zombie virus or
something, and turned into the undead. He hired me to help bring the monsters
in, to create the cover for him to do his dirty work. He moves around a lot, so
we don’t know his hiding place. But he has three hiding spots – Foxglove Manor,
the warrens, and the deeper dungeons. I would recommend you start there.”
Harsk rushed toward the deeper dungeons, with Lem joining
him using his cape of escape. No sooner did they enter the deeper dungeons then
they came face-to-face with Iesha Foxglove again!
Fortunately, Harsk was
prepared this time – he had a Crown of Charisma! Iesha stared at the crown and held
her spell, giving Harsk and Lem a chance to make their case.
“We’re not here to hurt you; we’re looking for the Skinsaw
Man just like you. I know you want to get revenge on your former no-good,
jealous husband, and we’re here to help.”
“Yeah. We captured Farmer John and they said the villain
could be hiding here. But there’s lots of monsters here, we don’t want to fight
through them all.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been living here a long time. I know the
dungeon well. Come with me.”
Harsk and Lem followed Iesha Foxglove through the deeper
dungeons. Iesha had an imposing presence, and most of the monsters were afraid
of her. If a monster looked like they were threatening the group, a quick
display of Iesha’s magic power usually made the monster change its mind. It was
a tough trek, and both Lem and Ezren were exhausted at the end, but they
confirmed no villain was there. Iesha offered to stand guard at the entrance to
ensure the villain did not try to escape there, while the rest of the party
explored the other locations.
“And, new from the makers of Glibmonex, the Crown of
Charisma!” Lem said. “The same guaranteed success for all your diplomacy needs,
but the Crown of Charisma is rechargeable, so you’ll never be without your
supply. Buy the Crown of Charisma at your local magic item shop today!”
Lem went to Foxglove Manor, but was too tired to enter right
now – he waited for the rest of his party.
Ezren joined Lem at the Foxglove Manor. He was merrily
walking along when he heard Lem’s song:
It’s an ambush! It’s
an ambush! You had better turn around,
Or else that crazy
scout guy will put you on the ground!
Ezren turned around to look, and saw the scout attack! He
was prepared, though, and used his Sihedron Medallion to protect himself from
the blow. He responded with a Scorching Ray to, well, scorch the enemy. Valeros
also arrived and found a scroll of detect evil, which he cast, revealing an
ogre!
He had a choice – to wait for now, or to attack. He had no
weapon, so he would have to beat the ogre with his bare hands if he tried to
attack. Fortunately he had help – he called on his companions. Lem sang the
song:
It’s an ogre, it’s an
ogre, let’s try something new:
Let’s see if our
fighter can kill it with no weapons but help from you.
I will sing this song
to distract the ogres now,
Harsk can shoot from
afar – from where, I don’t care how.
And the wizard know
some spells of strength as you well know,
So we can see just how
far that strength of spell can go.
Many places in our
travels we will be caught unprepared,
So we must plan to
ensure we can triumph even there.
A bolt from Harsk slammed into the ogre, and Valeros grabbed
on with his strength. He punched the ogre over and over, and even pulled the
bolt out and stabbed the ogre with it. Eventually he beat the ogre down. He saw
the ogre was guarding a glaive, which he took. Harsk continued exploring the
farmhouse, and found some potions spilled on the ground, as well as a battered
chest that he couldn’t open.
Ezren continued into the Foxglove Manor and found none other
than the dreaded Skinsaw Man himself! The whole party threw everything they had
at the Skinsaw Man, injuring him. But the Skinsaw Man disappeared into the
darkness and said, “Ha, ha! You will never catch me!”
The only hiding place that Farmer John mentioned left to
check was the Warrens. But the group decided they should also check the
farmhouse as well – Farmer John may have omitted that one, and it’s likely that
something bad is there. They saw a haunt before, which they thought meant the
villain wasn’t there, but the villain could have escaped there now that they
defeated him at the Foxglove Manor. But Harsk was the only one there, and he
had some battle wounds – he would need to be healed before he was in good
enough shape to keep going.
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