Feeling newly inspired and enlightened [They leveled up. –ed.], the adventurers set about learning more information about the notorious prisoners who were housed in Harrowstone. The group returned to Temple of Pharasma and spent the day researching Father Charlatan and The Lopper, uncovering all they could about those infamous souls. 

That evening, the town sheriff set up watch across the small village, while the adventurers staked out the town memorial. Around 1 a.m., a figure approached. Ashen’s darkvision revealed it to be Gibs Hephenus carrying a dead dog and large war razor. They watched as Gibs started to paint letters on the memorial in blood from the dog’s carcass, then interrupted him. Gibs charged and attacked the group, but was subdued. The party turned him over to the sheriff and had him locked in the town’s jail. 

The next morning, the adventurers set out for the Harrowstone Prison. They explored the grounds surrounding the prison, and made their way up to second floor balcony and entrance. After fighting off a haunted executioner’s scythe and a group of stirges, the party finds themselves in the prison, standing in a hallway of cells. Mysterious and haunting pipe music plays faintly in the distance….

The adventurers were invited to a meeing to discuss the mysterious events occuring in town. The villagers and the town council all assembled in the town hall. Once there, supernatural forces caused the lanterns inside to explode, scattering fire about the hall. As the fire spread, two undead spirits in the form of flaming skulls attacked. The group worked together to get the townsfolk to safety, extinguish the flames, and defeat the creatures. All of this went suprisingly well. 

Once things had settled down, the town council knew they needed direct intervention and offered the party of adventurers a reward to travel to Harrowstone Prison and discover —and deal with— the root of their troubles. 

After emerging from the False Crypt, the party headed into town where they were stopped by a deputy and escorted to the town’s memorial for the victims of the prison fire. There, the sheriff showed them a crime scene: blood splashed everywhere, and a “V” written in blood on the memorial. After some questioning, the sheriff seemed satisfied with the groups whereabouts and alibis, especially when Kendra vouched for them.

The party visited the town hall, where they met Councilwoman Shanda Faravan. She agreed to let them research with the town’s records, and to meet with Dyrus later that evening for a drink. The next stop was the Unfurling Scroll, a magic shop and school. Alendru was friendly enough, but didn’t have much useful information.

In the evening, Dyrus and the rest did meet with Shanda. She was able to give some more information on one of the Five Prisoners, the Splatter Man. Shanda made sure to invite the party to the Town Hall Meeting taking place the next morning.

As the party walked Shanda and Kendra home, two zombies shambled out of the hedges and attacked, but they where easily defeated.

Dyrus and Ashen escorted Kendra to the Laughing Demon, the local tavern. Dyrus made small talk with the barkeep Zokar and with Gibs, who had led the small mob at the earlier funeral. The gnome then offered some entertainment, in the form of a song played on his "harmonizer”.

Once the song began, two bloodthirsty stirges descended from the tavern’s rafters and attacked the patrons. Ashen was quick on the draw, shooting the first one almost immediately, and then knocking it out of the air when it tried to attack him. The second stirge attacked Gibs and Dyrus, though Dyrus had noticed the stirges seemed to be responding to the music being played. When Dyrus stopped, the stirge was disoriented for a moment, and then resumed its attack. After a flurry of attacks and attempts to dislodge the creature from Dyrus, the three were eventually able to kill the creature. Wounds were tended, the tavern was straightened up, and Ashen, Dyrus and Kendra left to rejoin the others at the Temple of Pharasma.

The group continued its research, learning the identity of five particularly violent prisoners that had just arrived at Harrowstone in the days before the destructive fire: Father Charlatan, the Lopper, the Mosswood Marauder, the Piper of Illmarsh, and the Splatterman.

After some rest and sleep (including a lesser restoration from Father Grimbarrow), the group set out to gather more information about the town, planning to visit the cemetery and then Town Hall. Since it was still relatively early in the day, they went to the cemetery first, hoping to avoid the obvious trouble of stumbling around after dark. Cross-referencing the professor’s journal, they were able to locate the crypt that he had indicated might contain a store of equipment useful in combating the mysteries of the haunted prison.

Once inside, the group was attacked by two giant centipedes that had made a home in the crypt. The fight was quick, and the creatures were dispatched. A sarcophagus did contain a batch of supplies, including a brass spirit planchette and several haunt siphons

Four adventurers from far afield gathered in the town of Ravengro for Professor Petros Lorrimor’s funeral:
Vasily Rabonov, a human Magus. Ashen Grimace, a Dhampir Gunslinger. Hamlish Valdayne, a human Paladin. Dyrus Rettigen, a gnome detective Bard.

The funeral was nearly interrupted by angry aggressive locals, who claimed the Professor was a necromancer, and attempted to deny him burial in the Restlands, the cemetery of Ravengro. Dyrus proved exceptionally charismatic, and defused the situation. Once graveside, all reflected fondly on the Professor, and Hamlish delivered a moving eulogy.

Returning to the Lorrimor house with Kendra Lorrimor, the four are present —as requested— for the reading of the will by Councilman Vashian Hearthmount. The four adventurers have their tasks laid out for them.

The books referred to in the will are:

• The Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye – a locked journal with brass scarab set with a single eye in the center of its cover.
• On Verified Madness – a treatise on aberrations and other entities that possess remote ties to the Dark Tapestry.
• Serving Your Hunger – a copy of one of several unholy books sacred to the goddess Urgathoa.
• The Umbral Leaves – a translation into Common of the unholy book of Zon-Kuthon.

The chest of books also contained the Professor’s Journal. Several entries in this journal contained troubling hints at a larger mystery, and cast doubt on the Professor’s death being an accident. It referenced both nearby abandoned prison, and mysterious cult known as the Whispering Way.

The group made their way to the Temple of Pharasma, where they met Father Grimbarrow, the local religious figure. Again, Dyrus knew the exact right thing to say, and convinced the priest to allow the group access to the churches records and notes.

Vasily and Hamlish stayed into the night to continue their research, while Dyrus and Ashen escorted Kendra to the local tavern for dinner, and a few promised drinks with the locals….

Wondering how to get started? Here are a few tips:

1. Invite your players

Invite them with either their email address or their Obsidian Portal username.

2. Edit your home page

Make a few changes to the home page and give people an idea of what your campaign is about. That will let people know you’re serious and not just playing with the system.

3. Choose a theme

If you want to set a specific mood for your campaign, we have several backgrounds to choose from. Accentuate it by creating a top banner image.

4. Create some NPCs

Characters form the core of every campaign, so take a few minutes to list out the major NPCs in your campaign.

A quick tip: The “+” icon in the top right of every section is how to add a new item, whether it’s a new character or adventure log post, or anything else.

5. Write your first Adventure Log post

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.

That’s it! The rest is up to your and your players.