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Session 11, Eryn Goes To Prison

Paldegora 

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Session 11 – 2023-02-18

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Well, ghosts and such running around down here. Poor Eryn being taken over like that. At least it showed them where the secret room was. From there they were able to find the other secret room and the entrance into the prison. All and all, an excellent adventure for all. This week promises to be a challenging time for Company Clandestine. Let’s see, how did this go again? Ah…yes!

Eryn prepared for her ascension into the prison. First off, she needed to remove the smell of this place and change into her outfit for these type of clandestine ventures. She had an outfit for this. After thinking about it for a moment, she remembered a barrel of water in the other secret room. She climbed down out of the prison, closing the secret door and explained to the others that in order to sneak around in the prison, even invisibly, she would need to clean up and change into something quieter than the leather armor she is wearing now.. She told them she was going to try and clean up in the other secret room and change in preparation for the task. She, Angelique, and Symon made their way down the hallway, Symon posted up somewhere between the two rooms and Angelique just outside the other secret room. 

Eryn went in, cleaned off her armor, and removed it. She cleaned herself and put on her stealth outfit. It’s a skin tight cloth designed not to catch on anything and not to be reflective at all. There were two belt pouches, one with two chambers containing ballbearings and sand, the other with a mini crowbar, pocket knife, string, chalk, jerky, flask of wine. She also wore a whole head mask, covering everything except access points. She could still hear, see, smell, taste, and speak. She also used a dark gray face paint to cover the white areas of her skin including her lips, skin around the eyes, skin around the nose, skin around the ears, and the skin on her neck between her top and the head mask. The cloth and head gear are decorated in a camo pattern of black, dark gray, dark green, and dark brown. She also wore bracers of defense, wrapped in cloth to match the rest of the outfit. They are the equivalent of a shield. She wrote a letter to Rogard, one that she could deliver to him to get his attention without exposing herself. The letter read as follows, “Rogard, I am here with a group looking into issues within Frosthaven, that seem to center around the book you arrived with. I need to speak with you, will you keep my presence secret if I speak to you? Just answer out loud, but be very quiet! Call me Sherri!”. She also wrote a letter to Fran to deliver the message that Kyra wished to deliver to her. 

With all of that out of the way, she headed back to the secret room with the entrance into the prison. It felt good to be in her stealth outfit preparing to do’s that which she does best. The adrenalin was pumping now. There was a discussion about someone waiting upstairs, close by in case she needed help, but still hidden. When all discussion was done, Xor waited in the room just through the hatch. This turned out to be a very good thing as Eryn learned she could not open the door from the other side. She climbed the ladder, Xor followed, and they closed the hatch. There was a spiral staircase going up on the eastern wall and a concealed door on the northern wall. Eryn picked the lock on the concealed door and cracked it. A little dust fell inside from around the door but otherwise, it was very quiet. There was light on the other side and a little distant talking but otherwise clear and ready for her to enter. She and Xor worked out a knocking pattern for when she was ready to enter again. The door was thick and heavy.They would have to wait and see if he would be able to hear the knock.

Once through, she made her way north until she came to a jail door blocking the hallway. From the door, she could see a couple of people in a room as a hallway broke off to the west just inside the gate. Another jail door was on the other side going north. She went back south to the secret door and turned west. There were cell doors lining the hallway on the southern wall. She started down the hallway, attempting to sneak quietly. She occasionally made some noise that attracted the attention of the people in the cells as she made her way down here. They looked but no one seemed to pickup on her presence. The first cell she came to was cell 9, there were no numbers or identifying marks but she later learned which cells were cells 5 and 4 so from that she was able to figure out what the cells numbers on this hallway were. Cell nine was empty, Cell eight had a man in it but he didn’t look like a worshipper of Ahn. Cells seven and six each had one man in them but they didn’t appear to be worshippers either. Five was empty but there was bedding material and a cup in there. Whoever was normally there wasn’t at this time. Cell four had a man in it that might have been Rogard but there was no way to be sure. Cell three was empty and cells one and two had men that didn’t appear to be worshippers but she couldn’t be sure.

She was at the end of the cell row and was at a jail door that opened into a large room that appeared to be a cafeteria eating room. Eryn could hear the clanging of pots and pans coming from an area in the center of the western wall of this room. In the southern portion of the western wall was a small alcove where a couple of guards were stationed. Eryn could see no way for her to open this door without alerting the guards to her presence. She moved all the way back down the hallway and waited within site of both exits for someone to appear and open one of the doors. She’d hoped to sneak through when that happened. After a long time, someone did finally appear at the door to the cafeteria and began unlocking it. She rushed to get to the door but was unable to get there fast enough. Worse than that, she made a noise, brushing by a chain, which caught the attention of this individual wearing a blackish and bluish robe coming into this area. He was not pleasant looking, scarred and even a little gruesome looking. He turned and stood very still, looking in all directions trying to determine where the sound came from. Eryn froze and waited. After a while, the big prisoner in the last cell came to his door and started hassling him. He turned and glared at the man who waved him off and moved back in and sat down. The man in the hallway moved forward again. She waited until his movement became more deliberate before moving herself. 

He stopped in front of cell five, the empty cell with bedding material and a cup in it. He starred for a bit and looked to both sides, and then turned and moved with deliberate haste to the exit door at the other end of the hallway. Eryn fell in quickly behind him, matching her steps to his, taking advantage of the noise he made as he walked, to mask her own steps. As he reached the next door, he pulled out keys and opened it, Eryn slipped through behind him and moved to an empty wall and froze. He didn’t close the door. He walked up to a guard. The guard asked, ”What the fuck are you doing here?” The gruesome guy asked in a gruff voice, “Where’s the girl?”. The lead guard came out and asked, “What girl?”. Gruesome guy said, “The girl! She was promised!”. The lead guard said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”. Gruesome guy said, “Cell 5!”. The lead guard said, “Oh, that girl! Oh, we’re all looking for a girl every once in a while!”. There was a bunch of laughter with that. Some more guards come out now. The lead guard said, “She got moved!”. Gruesome guy asked, “Why wasn’t I informed?”. The lead guard looked around and said, “the last time I checked, I didn’t have to inform you of shit! This is my block!”. Gruesome guy said, “She was promised to me!”. The lead guard said, “I don’t know who promised you what! I don’t care! When Theo comes down and says move somebody, I move them. I follow orders! And I don’t check with you about their orders because I don’t work for you!“. He has a venomous look on his face! He said, “So why don’t you just turn around gruesome and go back to your play room and do whatever you do and stay the hell off my block!” Gruesome said, “I’ll speak to the boss about this!” The lead guard said, “Why don’t you do that! You can take it up with him! They had her moved, I didn’t ask why, I just got it done and then I went back to doing my job, which is probably what you need to do.”. He then asked, “Don’t you have some books to take care of or something? Is your abacus broke?”. Gruesome guy gave him an evil snarl! Then he turned around and went back through the door and slammed it behind him, and locked it. All of the guards started snickering and stuff. Gruesome guy went around the corner and disappeared from view. The lead guard said, “Alright boys, fun’s over, go back to your games! Maybe that will keep him out of here for a couple of days.“. Thinking back to a conversation between the warden and Sir Charles at the trial, the person that did the books here was named Mott. “Gruesome guy must be Mott!”, Eryn thought!  

Once everything had quieted down, and the guards returned to their games. There were two rooms acting as the guard station. Eryn moved in closer to the southern chamber. Along with the game they were playing, there were some papers on the table. She leaned in to try to get a better look at the papers and saw that it was a prison roster. She also made a little noise. One of the guards seemed to notice and actively moved to investigate. Eryn backed away quickly and quietly, waiting on things to calm down again. It wasn’t long before the guards were heavy into their game again. She moved in close again and did see that the paper had cell numbers and the names of people in them. On the first page, she didn’t find the names of anyone she was looking for. It was a book with multiple pages. She backed up and went across the hallway to the northern room. There was little in there but the leader guy and a couple of other guards. She could see a note on the table but couldn’t read it. She decided to have a look down the hallway and passed by each cell. There was nothing identifying about any of the cells or people, though the cells were bigger. She got a good look into each cell. Once she made it to the other end, she came to a huge portcullis. On the other side of the portcullis was a wide hallway that led to stairs going up. In the next hallway, there was a jail door to the south leading back to the cafeteria area she’d spied earlier. There was another jail door leading to the north to another room that seemed to be another kitchen area.

Eryn determine that she needed to get to the notes with the cell numbers and occupant names if she had any hope of finding Shea, Fran, and Rogard. One of the cells held a half-orc that appeared pissed and spoiling for a fight. She moved to that cell and when she felt she could safely do it, she unlocked his cell. He heard the click and turn to face the door. She moved quickly back down the hallway, past the guards, and waited. The half-orc finally realized that the door was no longer locked, pushed it open, and began making his way toward the guards. An uproar ensued and the guards poured into the hallway and fought to subdue the half-orc. All of them were required to restrain him and return him to his cell. As they worked to do that, Eryn moved into the room with the book and quickly searched it. She found Rogard’s name quickly as being in cell four. She later found Fran’s name as the occupant of cell five. She searched and didn’t find a Shea. By this time the guards were on their way back so she had to back out of the room and out of the way. She waited outside the room until things settled back down before moving again, except to unlock the jail door leading out of this area and back south. The leader was very angry and chewed them out for the mistake of leaving his cell unlocked.

Eryn moved through the southern door and pushed it closed but didn’t re-lock it. She moved back down to the cell she believed was cell four. She took out the note for Rogard and placed it just inside the cell and tapped on the bar to get him to look that way. He didn’t seem to notice so she tapped a little harder. The prisoner looked up and over in that direction. Eryn put her finger on the note and moved it around a little to get his attention. He got up and approached the door and picked up the paper and read it. He looked around and said, “Who’s there!”. Eryn tells him her name is Sherri. She gets him to tell her that he is Rogard. She tries to find out about the book that he brought into Frosthaven but that seems to agitate him and he got louder. She reminded him to keep it down but the more asked him about it, the more agitated and louder he became. He did say that the book was ancient knowledge that would lead them to callIng Ahn back. He asked if Eryn knew where it was. She could only tell him that Sir Charles had it. He became angry, snarling, and saying things like “Infidel” and “Blaspheme”. He got louder as he got more angry. He said, “He has no right to that book!”. Eryn Tried to get the note back from him, so their would be no evidence she had been here. She tried to get him to quiet down as well. He asked her who she was and why she was there. She told him that she was working to get him out of here but needed to know more about the book. He told her to get the book and to bring it to him. She asked, why the book would scare Sir Charles. His response was loud and he shouted, “Because he’s an infidel!”. She tried to get him to quiet down again but he yelled, “It’s blasphemy that he has it!. It’s blasphemy that he’s read it!”. She tried again to tell him that if he gets her caught, she can’t get him out. He threw the note out of the bars and said, “Go away!”, as he turned to go back to his bed. 

Eryn picked up the note and looked back at cell five. Fran was supposed to be in there but she’d heard the exchange between gruesome guy and the guard leader earlier where the guard told him that he’d been ordered to move her. She doesn’t know where she was moved to. Eryn returned to the section where the guards were. She waited for something to happen. There was a door in the wall to the east but no writing and no way to look inside except by opening it. There wasn’t a lock on it. She reached for it and realized it was rusty and likely to make noise if she tried to open it. She positioned herself between the cells and the portcullis, waiting for someone to come to any of the doors so that she could possibly slip through. She examined the portcullis and determined that she couldn’t open it. She returned to waiting for activity. Xor was becoming concerned as she’d been gone for a while. He listened at the door but wasn’t sure if he would be able hear anything through it or not. He decided to continue waiting. He’d guessed that she’d already been in there for three and a half to four hours. Eryn looked at the portcullis again and determined that the lever to open was out of reach on the north wall of the western side of the bars. She tried to think of other ways to get into other areas of the prison. 

As she moved back down this cell area, she made a noise, maybe coughed or something, and the guards suddenly became alert and looked out into the main area. She froze in her tracks. The leader guy said that there had been a lot of strange things happening tonight and he ordered his men to make a line and to move slowly down the hallway. It was quickly obvious that they were looking for someone, namely her. As they were moving down chamber, one of the prisoners said, “You can’t see her can ya?”. They stopped and asked, what he was talking about. He only replied that he wasn’t going to help em. They began moving again. Eryn backed up to the portcullis. The leader told his men to draw their swords and if they felt something, to hit it. She lowered herself just beyond the watering trough, near the portcullis, and hunkered down low, waiting to an opportunity to bolt if one presented itself. There was more catcalling from the women prisoners. As the guards went by the half-orc’s cell, he grabbed the closest guard and began fighting with him. An opening presented itself and Eryn slipped through quickly and returned to the other end of the hallway. The finished beating the half-orc off of the guard and returned to their post. They worked on the injured guard. One of the guards needed to go to the restroom so the boss told him he could. He disappeared into the closed door that Eryn was afraid to try to enter. She did move to get a look inside when the door was opened. Just a crapper.

The bandaged guard returned to his area and sat while the rest of the guards were repositioned and ordered to be more on alert in the cell area. Eryn stood against the eastern wall and waited for someone to open and the north gate out of the area, allowing for access to other areas of the prison. After lengthy lack of activity and nothing to indicate anything was going to change, the guards finally returned to their respective areas and settled in. They were ordered to keep their eyes open though. Eryn keeps waiting for another hour or so. Symon pushed open the grate to see if Xor knew anything, but he indicated that the door was so thick, that he’s not sure he could hear anything through it anyway. Xor asked if he should crack the door and see if he could see or hear anything. He said he thought he could open it quietly as it opened quietly before. Symon agreed he should try. Xor cracked the door slightly and listened, hearing nothing, he opened it more and looked about, not seeing anything. He left it cracked a little, prepared to close it quickly if someone approached. Eryn happened to see the door slightly ajar began moving toward it. Symon moved up the stairs a little ways and tried to see and hear what he could. It was dark but was able to make out a landing further up. Eryn slipped through the jail door between her and the secret door and made her way back to the secret room. She pushed on the door whispering, “Hey”. Xor stepped back and Eryn slipped in and closed the door again. 

Xor let her know that they’d been getting worried about her and she apologized and explained that there were lots of locked doors to get through and that she was having to wait for people to open those doors before she could slip through them. She let them know that she’d found a prison roster and knows where Fran and Rogard should be. That Fran was moved and not in her cell and Rogard was far too agitated to get any real information out of him except that the book was a tool to help get Ahn to return. He won’t say how and only went on a tirade about Sir Charles blaspheming by taking and reading the book. He also needs or wants the book back. She also told them that Shea wasn’t listed in the roster. She doesn’t know why she’s not on the roster except that maybe she’s being held somewhere else in the prison.

Xor suggested checking up the stairs. Symon said that he had seen a landing. We waited on the gods to pee and then Eryn headed up the stairs. She let Symon know she was there as she passed him. She got to the top of the stairs and found where it opened into another room. It’s been used recently. There were racks with weapons, shields on them. There were torches, buckets, one of them covered slightly. There is something in the bucket but it’s covered too much to see it. There is an iron door to the west. Eryn fetched her oil to carry for oiling doors should she need to. (she missed checking the bucket) She checked the door and found it not locked. She cracked the door to peak in. She saw some crates, boxes, and barrels stacked around the room. In the distance she heard some voices. She can’t make anything out that they are saying. She opened the door a little more and saw that this room opened into a bigger room with cobble-stone floors, more boxes,  barrels, and large sacks. It was well lit. She could still hear the voices in the distance. It looked more and more like a storage area or warehouse for supplies. She entered the room and pulled the door closed behind her. She made her way around the corner and heard a conversation northeast of her. She made her way across the room to an area where she could get a better look. She picked up on a conversation northeast of her, a younger man whose voice is kind of shrill and nervous, and an older man who is more calm. She moved to a better position to see and hear everyone involved.

There are actually three people there.

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Boy: “I don’t think you understand. I’m trying to explain it to you.”

Warden: “What have I done to deserve this kind of treatment from you and your father?”

Boy: “No, we’re not trying to treat you any ways but..but you just have to understand.”

Warden: “Your father and I have been friends for quite a while you know, we’ve done business together for quite a while. What have I done to deserve to be treated like this?”

Boy: “Well, we’re trying to find out, we thought maybe you can help us find out who stole all of it.”

Warden: “Theo, do you understand what he’s trying to sell us here?”

Theo: Grunts and says, ”I don’t think he gets it!”         

Warden: “So let me see if I understand what you’re trying to tell me. All these years, I’ve supplied your father with the best goods. And all these years, he’s always paid me. So now you’re coming to me saying your not going to pay me.”

Boy: “No..no..no. We’re going to pay you, we just need time to find where our stuff..who’s stole our stuff.”

Warden: “Help me understand why that’s my problem.”

Boy: “Well, we just need some more time!”.

Warden: “Time? I gave you time. I gave you goods in advance. And then every Friday, you come and you pay me! But now you’re telling me that you’re not going to.”

Boy: “You don’t understand! W..we need some time to find the stuff that was stolen so we can pay you!”

Warden: “So, you come here and you tell me that you’re not going to pay me and you ask me to try and find the people that stole your goods that’s keeping you from paying me. Is that the way a friend treats a friend?” 

Theo: “Doesn’t sound like a friend to me!”

Eryn stealthed in further and to get a good look at everyone. She recognized the warden. The big brutish guy next to him with chain mail armor on must be Theo.

Boy: “We’ll pay you!”

Warden: “Not only that, your father insults me further by sending you instead of him coming to me himself. That is not the act of a friend.”

Boy: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, we’re going to pay you!”

Warden: “I tell you what, I’ll give you till sundown tomorrow to bring me my money. Or, if I don’t receive my money by sundown tomorrow, not only will I have your father whipped, I’m going to grab up all of your sisters, I’ve got somebody here that can probably make good use of them, if you take my meaning.”

Boy: “No..No, you don’t have to do that. We’ll get you your money!”

Warden: “Go back and tell your father, this is not how we do business! You’ve got till sundown tomorrow to bring me what you owe me. “

Boy: “We’ll get it! We’ll get it, I promise!”

Warden: “Theo? Show him out!”

Theo goes to the door and holds it open and the boy runs out and disappears. Theo shuts the door behind him. 

Eryn continued staying hidden and listened.

Warden Blackmore: “Put our boys up north on this! Tell them they did a good job! Make sure he don’t make it back.”

Theo: “I’ll do it!”

Warden: “And by the way, have you heard from Rawlings?”

Theo: “Not a word!”

Warden: “All he was supposed to do was take Jade and test her, and you haven’t heard anything!  

Theo: “I haven’t  heard a peep back from him!”

Warden: “See if you can find out what’s going on! Him and that whole damn bunch are becoming too unreliable to me.”

Theo: “I’ll take care of it!”

Warden: “Good!”

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They moved off to the northwest, chatting as they went. Eryn attempted to follow them but managed to knock something off the table she was passing. As-soon-as she realized she’d done that, she turned and moved quickly away from the item and the table, putting some distance between the Warden Blackmore, Theo, and her. Blackmore said, “Somebody's here, find them!”. Theo and draw swords and began moving in her general direction. Eryn fled back to the room, back to the stairs, and rushed down, as quietly as possible. She closes doors as she went. She whispered loudly as she started down the stairs for Symon and Xor to get through the grate and get out of here quickly. Xor and Symon rush through the grate with Eryn right behind them. They got the grate closed and got out of the room below. Everyone but Eryn made a dash for the other secret room. Symon told her they would give her an hour and then come looking for her. The rest of the party made it into the other secret room, closed it up and quietly waited.

Eryn waited just outside the room that led to the prison and listened. The door is thick so she was not sure if she could hear them coming or not. She stayed prepared to dart away. Nothing ever happened and she never heard anything. When the hour was nearly done, she crept down to the others and let them know that no one came through. She took this time to catch them up on what happened while she was in the prison and all that she’d learned. They began going over who the people were. The Warden she recognized but Theo she had not seen before and described him to the rest. The boy, she didn’t know exactly who that was. We discussed trying to get more information about what they are doing in the prison. If we could find out who this boy was or get Sir Charles on our side then we could maybe dig into whatever is going on in the prison. Maybe turning in the goblins, the letter about the pending attack, and then explaining the riddle of the missing chickens will help gain Sir Charles’ trust. We can try to protect the secret room we are in now by covering it like it was when we found it.

Eryn changed back into her armor while she was still invisible.

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====== After Game Discussion ======

It’s not exactly everything but pretty close.

The Dungeon Master popped in and said: “It’s a complex puzzle my pupils. You need to remember things that you’ve heard in the past in order to predict what might happen in the future.”

Kevin: “From what you’ve heard and what he’s told us in the past from different people, you should be able to start putting a pretty good picture together of what potentially that’s all about, what the prison’s all about. And, potentially what might have happened to Fran. We’ll have to think way back! There were all kinds of clues along the way and when you piece them all together, you might be able figure it out. His gift to us, the boy is not related to Sir Charles in any way.”.

He said the conversation between the boy and the warden should have told us a lot about one of the people in that conversation.

This is the thinking cap part of his stuff. I didn’t say it was going to be easy. 

There was discussion about Eryn returning to the prison while she was still invisible. Then there was a discussion about what we left behind to indicate we were there. Eryn said that the dust and such in the room at the foot of the stairs probably has indications that we were there. They could very well have their own guard waiting in that room for one of us to try to come up there again. Other than that, there should be no evidence we were even there. She suggested that we focus on getting the information about the goblins and the chickens to Sir Charles and see if we can’t get some trust going there. Symon suggested that we not make any accusations about what is going on at the prison without something more solid. We have a lot of pieces that we need to think over but we don’t really have anything concrete yet. I wish we could have gotten more out of this.

Dungeon Master: “You need to go back and listen to the conversation that happened when we first saw Warden Blackmore.”

Chris: “In the trial? He said that he had a special place for Eryn in the prison and”

Dungeon Master: “Yes, but there was a conversation between Sir Charles and the Warden. You need to go back and read that. It will help us define their relationship.”

Chris: “Mott finished the books, got them done early, I wanted to get them to you as quickly as possible. I knew you wanted to see them.”

David: “Mott was the guy with the ugly face! He’d had to go back and ”play with his abacus”. That must have been Mott”.

Kevin: “Lot’s of little pieces that are starting to fit together.”

Debbie: “Also, Elmer told us we need to keep an eye on Warden Blackmore.”

Chris: “We already know he’s a piece of crap, it’s all hearsay, we don’t have anything tangible. Maybe if we could get the books. Our ability to get into that prison again, once we reveal this place is down here, I doubt we’ll be able to get into here again. We don’t have to talk about that room. We can tell them what is down here and maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll just post some guards outside. I don’t know but I don’t see how we’ll ever get in here again.” 

David: “Probably not but we’ll leave this room hidden”

Chris: “We can sneak in through Sir Charles house or through the prison, or through the whirlpool, cause we don’t know where that goes.”

David: “The main thing we want to point out about this place is that we found the goblins down here that were digging their way into Sir Charles place. We found the note and about their plans to attack Frosthaven, and we found what’s been happening to the chickens.”

Chris: “with a little luck, that will get Charles back on the straight and narrow. Then we can kind of go from there. If we can get him out of the paranoid, imprison everybody mentality and if we can gain some trust with him, then maybe we can make some headway.”

We decided to stop here.

Kevin said, when talking about the prison that something about that layout of it should give us a clue as well. You might have to think about it! The cobblestones and the big door are for the wagons to coming in. 

David said that means we were running around in the first basement level of the prison. When Eryn went upstairs to the warehouse area, that was on the ground level.

Chris, there may be more cells on the warehouse level.

Kevin: “Things that make you say hmm! What’s the book about? Where’d they take Fran? Who’s the kid? Who owes them money?”

The kid was saying they couldn’t pay him because all of their stuff was stolen. Apparently to be kid asked him to help find out who stole it. The Warden said you’re not going to pay me and you want me to go find your stuff? Are you kidding? What did he say after the kid walked out. Very important what Warden said about the kid after he left.

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