Cain is happy to leave talking to others while he stays in the background listening, at least for now.

Adrin was still a bit shaken from their experience at the village.

"Certainly those creatures were responsible for the girl's death," he said as they traveled. "I wonder if her own spirit didn't join the others as one of those... things."

He shook his head, "perhaps we should consult with religious authority in town as to the nature of those spirits?"

He nodded at Sir Constantine as he gathered himself, "it seems best, yes. Then we can think of what may come next."

Our heroes rapped on the door and stood by, eventually the sound of shuffling feet could be heard and the door opened to reveal a short, elderly woman with her white hair pulled up into a bun. She had a friendly smile, the interior of the windmill was a homely and cozy place, and somewhere in the house a kettle was just starting to sing.

"Starle! Kettle's on! And we have visitors!" She called back into the house.

She beckoned the party in and seated them around the wooden farmhouse table in the dining room.

"Why dearie, you're as pale as death." She said to Shade. "Have some tea. What brings you to call this afternoon?"

“I am Sir Constantine GodAlming, a Paladin my associates and I are investigating for the trial occurring now in town.  We had hoped to hear from you about what you know.”

“We hope she will recover, it has been a rough few days.”

"Greetings Ladies," Adrin said with a smile. He nodded at her assessment of Shade, "she looks as we all feel inside right now I think. I for one would love a cup of tea to calm myself."

He took what was offered and commented glowingly on the house, it's coziness and charm. Eventually, he circled back to business.

"As my companions Sir Godalming said, we are here on official business I'm afraid. We would like to speak with you and your sister about the events in Hergstag that lead you to live here rather than there." Adrin spoke warmly to the woman, his tone soothing and encouraging at the same time.

OOC: Diplomacy to influence her and her sister over introductions and small talk.
17:07, Today: Adrin Prescu rolled 28 using 1d20+10.  Diplomacy.

Shade takes the tea from the sisters with a wan smile.  "I did just see a ghost.  And it tried to take what it saw.  Thank you for the tea," she says, sipping the warm liquid gratefully as Adrin explains their reason for being here.

The Orzinov sisters gathered around in the cozy kitchen, pouring tea from a heavy earthenware teapot and offering slightly stale but still sweet pastries baked the previous day. They were graying but hale ladies in their late forties, Garrow and Starle spinsters and Flicht a widow. They still did most of the work around the mill themselves, only relying on a hired hand for the heavy lifting.

They seemed reticent to talk about the awful events that had devastated Hergstag, but at Adrin's gentle prodding opened up.

They spoke of the horrible day that the Beast of Lepidstadt had strode into the center of the village, carrying poor Ellsa's body and cackling madly. The enraged villagers had set upon the creature immediately but were too late to save the child. The Beast laid her body on the village green and was driven off into the swamp. Try as they might, the mob of villagers were unable to catch it.

But the creature's unholy influence was not over. The trauma of their deaths, or perhaps some dark necromantic gift of the Beast, set the spirits of the poor dead children to haunt their families each night. Unable to endure the grief and trauma, one by one the families of Hergstag moved away to seek greener pastures.

Starle spoke the most, with her sisters chiming in sorrowfully.

Sequestered by sorrow, Starle and Flicht had been home all day but Garrow had felt the need to see the creature with her own eyes. She had been at the deposition that very morning, and confirmed that the Beast on trial was the same creature that had lumbered into the village that day.

Their story rang true, but Cain and Adrin shot each other a subtle glance as they listened. Perhaps there was more here than was being spoken aloud.

---

While all three sisters are telling the truth, and clearly have no intent to deceive or mislead you, you get the impression that their version of the events may be colored by grief and anger.

“Most sad of days, indeed!  I understand young Elsa was a spirited girl, did you know her well?.”

Sir Constantine Godalming rolled 15 using 1d20+10.  Diplomacy
This message was last edited by the player at 18:57, Fri 17 Apr 2020.

Cain's eyes narrow in suspicion. Something was off with this story. Maybe they are not outright lying, but there is something they are not saying, for whatever reason.

"Yes." Garrow said sorrowfully. "Hergstag was a small village, and a very tight community. The children were the pride and joy of all of us, not just their parents. Ellsa was very kind, and very curious. She was always exploring in the fields or the woods, although the children weren't allowed to play near the swamp. And with good reason, considering what happened."

"Indeed." Cain decides to try to find out what exactly the sisters are not telling. Since he has no idea where to even begin to look, he starts from what facts of the case they do have, hopping to get some clue from how the sisters respond. "I am new to this case myself, so perhaps you ladies would be so kind as to help me make sure I got the facts of this tragedy in order."

Without waiting for a response, he takes out a sheet of parchment and starts talking. "So, seven months ago six children disappeared from the village of Hergstag, only to return as ghost to haunt their families: Sarah Corrow, Tomas and Holger Ramonanov, Vania Stonebrow, Mikkel Kahnvald, and lastly Ellsa Torean." He reads the names from the parchment and looks at the sisters. "Do I have this right?"

"Also, of all the unfortunate children, only one body was ever recovered, that of Ellsa Torean, brought to the village by the Beast. Tell me, has anyone examined her body before burial? Have you seen any wounds or injuries on her? Any indication of how the child died, let alone why she returned as a ghost?"

21:28, Today: Cain rolled 17 using 1d20+6.  Sense Motive.

Adrin listened with interest to the sister's stories though he too was off-put by something, he wasn't sure it was evasions as much as emotions.

He waited until they responded to Cain's question though before he asked further himself.

At Cain's gentle coaxing the three sisters began their tale again. Each time there was ambiguity or contradiction his probing prompted a correction, and eventually a more complete picture of events began to unfold.

The terror had started when Sarah Corrow disappeared into the swamp. A search party was dispatched, but the girl wasn't found before night fall. The following morning Tomas Ramonanov was missing as well, but his brother Holger reported that he was playing at hiding in the swamp. He was sent to fetch his brother in, but never returned.

With three disappearances in two days the village was whipped into a frenzy of agitation, the children locked in at night for their own safety. But Vania said that her friends were calling for her to come play, and slipped out late that night. She wasn't seen again.

Mikkel Kahnvald's parents heard him screaming in his bedroom at midnight on the 22nd but by the time they reached him he was already dead. The doors and windows were locked, and there was no sign of forced entry. His death was the latest and most horrifying, but because it couldn't compare to the attack the following day it had simply been lumped in as 'nefarious acts by the Beast of Lepidstadt'.

The town elders were preparing to call up guardsmen from Lepidstadt, or troops from Caliphas if it came to that, but the Beast's appearance offered its own horrifying explanation of the events that had rocked the town. When the Beast was driven off and Ellsa's body was recovered fear of the creature, grief over their loss, and the half seen, half imagined hauntings by their children forced the villagers to flee en-masse without further investigation. The villagers saw the Beast's attack as confirmation that it had been behind all six disappearances, and didn't look for another culprit.

Starle also warned that the fields and woods surrounding the village had been seeded with sharpened bear traps before the villagers left for good. Anyone investigating the area would do well to be wary.

“Thank you ladies for welcoming us into your lodging and sharing your tale.  We just came from there and encountered one of the ghostly children, we were able to bring that one peace.  The other thing we encountered was not a child at all but a swarm of death wrapped in rags with spindly arms, it was that creature that touched Shade, we are not yet sure what it is. Most likely it is the progenitor to the child like ghosts.”

SCG sips his tea.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:53, Wed 22 Apr 2020.

"So... it would seem to be fair to say ladies that there were children dying with no marks on them at all before the Beast appeared in the village? And even poor Elisa had no marks on her when she was killed. Does the Beast with its huge frame and overpowering strength look like if it killed someone, it would leave no mark on the children?" Adrin asked with a calm voice.

"isn't it more likely that something else was the culprit and the so called "Beast" was doing what it said, bringing Elisa's body back?"

SCG sputters his tea
“Begging your pardon ladies my friend is a strong advocate for the truth, perhaps we should tell you more about what we encountered there.  We heard the sound of a child singing a hymn inside the temple.  We went in to investigate, the child-spirit attacked, as if it were just a game, with a deadly grip the went through my armor and hit with coldness of icy death.  We began fighting the child like spirit...in that very temple, amongst the pews...”

SCG takes another sip of tea and rubs his chest of the lingering numbness

The three sisters put their heads together, gasping and nodding in agreement with both Adrin and Constantine.

"Aye, although the Beast itself is a terror to behold, it must surely be a powerful sorcerer as well to have visited such misery upon those children."

The deep, instinctive fear of the Beast ran deep in Lepidstadt, and that more than anything was what condemned the gentle Solomon to die. In truth it wasn't evidence, secrets, and jurisprudence that stood between the investigators and the truth, but prejudice and a deeply seated generational fear that had lived in the hearts of the people of Lepidstadt for years.

Flicht, who had not spoken previously, scowled and set down her tea saucer.

"Who knows why the creature does anything? It must have brought the girl back to visit more anguish on her parents. If you fought with its ghostly victims...at least you can release them and give them peace."

Adrin turned his understanding smile on Flicht.

"The creature was friends with Elisa, it called her its only friend in fact. The girl played with him and read stories to him. He tried to save her from her ghostly attackers such as we ourselves encountered, but even he with all his strength could do no more against the apparitions than we ourselves or you could. It was too late to save her from the cold touch of the spirits. In its grief, it brought Elisa to the town, to her parents..." he said and trailed off.

"Perhaps a misshapen creature like the Beast, when it cries, there are no tears to come. Perhaps it's an odd grimace of a face that won't allow the sounds of grief as we hear them. To us... perhaps they sound like laughter. Perhaps there is another tale that you have not considered for the events Miss Flicht"

"It was a horrible time, and the Beast was a horrible experience. The town's reactions are understandable, even if they don't fit what was done to the children..." he added in a soft voice. Then he too took a sip of his tea.

OOC: I forgot to add this yesterday to my post... so we'll say I'm using my nat20 Diplomacy here on Flicht instead?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:01, Thu 23 Apr 2020.

Cain just marks something down on his paper, leaving the conversation to others. He's unsure if their job should really be to try to convince witnesses of anything. Besides, there could still be some connection between the wraith that attacked them and the Beast.

The sisters looked uncertain, but there was no denying the persuasiveness of Adrin's calm and reasoned argument. Flicht seemed all but convinced of his side of the story, and she may have been able to sway Starle. But Garrow scowled as deeply as ever. Or, perhaps not quite so deeply.

But she seemed less inclined to believe in the Beast's innocence than her sisters.

"Whatever...the case may be..." She sounded uncertain.

"I suppose the most that we can hope for is that justice, true justice, will be done. Please, help the suffering spirits of the children. And if you have any other questions we will be happy to assist you."

“I have every intention of cleansing the village or see that it is set into motion.  My companions and I have been all over investigating for the trial and are tied to doing that for the immediate future.  Hopefully clerics can tell us the nature of the terror there and we can be better ready to deal with it; or leave it to them.”

He finishes his tea

“A terrible loss for us all; a whole community decimated.”

Shade listened attentively, trying to warm herself with the tea as the sisters were coaxed to describe the events of the childrens' deaths.  A horror of death, ghosts in the swamps that drew the children out.  A desecrated graveyard in the previous swamp village with some indication of possible necromancy.

A sorcerer, the sisters had said.  A sorcerer it could be, but Shade was certain it wasn't the Beast.

"Everything we learn of the tragedies tells me there is a great evil out there, either in the swamps or drawn to 'em for sommat wicked. 'Tis a place where one could hide much. And either the Beast is in it, wittingly or unwittingly, or the brute has Fate's worst timing. I think that there's not a chance that someone isn't taking advantage. They're getting something out of this, probably some kind of power only drank by the heartless," Shade says.

Of returning to a place laced by bear traps to hunt down ghosts... it would not be this day, not unless the others insisted.  She had little left - going on no sleep for two days, and spirit drained by the undead.  Not to mention that unless someone was able to calm the mood, they had several more place to check in the next few days, and she wanted to be sharp enough to do any good.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:53, Tue 28 Apr 2020.

“Perhaps we should retire for the evening, who would like to keep watch through the night with me, I believe Shade needs an actual night of deep rest, though I intend to watch over those who slumber this night.”

Also if anyone needs healing and/or fatigue removal I plan to do that also this evening through lay on hands

Our heroes bade farewell to the Orzinov sisters and made their way from their windmill home. Situated as it was on the outskirts of the city it was a short carriage ride into the city proper.

As with most large cities Abadar's temple was the largest and most lavishly appointed in temple square, with Pharasma's austere chapel standing tall across the way from it. The academics at the university also left offerings at Irori's shrine, and Erastil also saw a home for his clerics and worshipers.

The group made their way into the chapel, a tall, spired building with tapestries depicting Pharasma's whorl, a wide nave where supplicants came to pray for the deceased, and an area behind the transept that served as mortuary and mausoleum. An austere looking woman in a creased white frock and wimple approached them when they entered but did not move towards the prayer benches. She bowed, her hands in her sleeves.

"Greetings, my children. What guidance do you seek from the Lady of Graves?"

In reply to GM (msg # 377):

"Greetings Sister," Adrin smiled and gave a slight bow in return.

"We seek both some healing for our friend," and he gestured to Shade, "as well as guidance on how do deal with some undead. We are helping investigate the crimes of the Beast for his trial. In those investigations, we came across a village where all that remains are wraith-like creatures. One of which seems to be the.. umm, master of the others? With the others being children of the village."

"We are rather hoping that one or more of your clergy could accompany us back to the village and help us deal with them as well. We think we managed to put one of the spirits to rest before we were put to flight..." he again motioned to Shade's pale form.

"But there is likely another three or four of the smaller wraiths and the, master wraith to deal with still."

He turned and looked at his companions to see if they had anything to add.