[Story Progression] Part One: The Last Will and Testament of Petros Lorrimor

The tongue lashing that Tyrion gives the mob is enough for them to doubt their resolve. Some drop their poorly crafted tools. Others turn to leave and head back toward town. The leader is left fuming at his pathetic attempt to run the group off and prevent the burial. He swears and curses up a storm and begins to storm off back towards town.

Father Grimburrow having heard the commotion, walks over and begins to apologize. "My Friends, I am terribly sorry for the behavior that Gibs has shown today. These people know better than to intrude upon the holy rites of Pharasma. I will be sure to speak with the town sheriff and make sure that they are properly disciplined. Let us continue with this solemn task." With that he walks on back towards the burial site. Kendra is satisfied with the outcome and nods her head and follows the Priest of Pharasma. While walking she apologizes profusely for their disgusting behavior. The local councilors profess shock at the attack and indicate that they recognized the thugs as "local farmhands, all of low character."

The procession heads on to the where the casket is going to be laid to rest. You all arrive at the burial site and the casket is lowered into the ground. After several of the late professor's friends say a few remarks. It is Kendra's turn to speak. She recalls fond memories of her father. Between sobs and tears she is able to recount one of her favorite stories where her father had gotten himself into trouble with an oversized rat. The rat was surely more scared of Lorrimor than Lorrimor was of the rat, but that did not prevent the professor from nearly leaving all of his research behind because of a rat. The small gathered crowd shares a reserved laugh at the story. Father Grimburrow turns to you all and asks if you would like to share any memories of the late professor?

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Your group gains 600 XP for disarming the fight with the thugs. You also gain 1 Trust point for having it not end in violence. I will track XP for each player and also trust points.

If you would like to share a story about Professor Lorrimor, please do so. Make your story funny or sad. Just be compelling. After your story either make a Diplomacy check or a Perform (Oratory) check.
 
Knowing that he is not well spoken, especially so during emotional moments. Beornmar stands there, in a reserved fashion. Holding back tears at the thought of where his families business might have gone had it not been for the professor.
 
Tyrion stands up to address the funeral "When I first met Professor Lorrimor he has just run out of the woods, being chased by a pack of wolves. My bodyguard quickly dispatched the wolves and we offered the Professor a ride back to town. He thanked us for our help but said he didn't have anyway to repay us for our kindness, instead he told us a joke that seems appropriate for this moment.

He said "A famous doctor renowned for his work on the heart died and everyone was gathered at his funeral. A regular coffin was displayed in front of a huge heart. When the priest finished saying his words and after everyone said their good-byes, the heart was opened, the coffin rolled inside, and the heart closed."
Just at that moment one of the mourners started laughing. The guy next to him asked: "Why are you laughing?"
"I was thinking about my own funeral" the man replied.
"What's so funny about that?"
"I'm a gynecologist."

!roll 1d20+9 #perform oratory (not that kind hex, get your mind out of the gutter)
 
[trigger]Perform(Oratory) Bad Hex! No Gutter!: 21[/trigger]
[trigger=by]For: English Re: #18[/trigger]
 
"You know, I met Professor Lorrimor was a long time ago, but we didn't really get together then. He promised to look me up later, and it was actually two years before I saw him again. I was out in some back country town, you know the sort, close-knit, kind of angry, a bit offstandish to strangers until they find out you're paying for a round of drinks for the whole tavern. So my buddies step out for a minute, and I'm by myself, minding my own business (and by business I mean this whiskey), when some guy mosies up to me and starts laying it on thick. Reeaal thick. And I'm just sitting there, like, 'Hey man, I don't even know you,' but apparently this was some important guy in the town and didn't take kindly to rejection. Soon enough he's yelling about my mother's radishes, and me in a cave with twelve goats or something, and he's really gearing up for a brawl, and his lackeys are cackling, cracking their knuckles and waving big sticks, and a couple of them are getting up behind me when BAM-" Amberly actually slaps her hand together to emphasize the sound, "-and the thug keels over, big red welt on the back of his skull. All his friends turn around, and the drunk guy with his head in a puddle of spilled, watery beer was actually Professor Lorrimor, brandishing a sap.

Those cowards all just ran away with their leader on the ground, and you know what he says?


'I paid a whole gold piece for this, damned if I'm only going to get to use it once!' And he vaults over the table, chases down the slowest goons, and BOP! BOP! Two more fall over. Sure, he was a scholar, liked to read books and look at trees, but when the time came to go out and get it done, he went out and got it done..."

!roll 1d20+9 #diplomacy
 
[trigger]diplomacy: 19[/trigger]
[trigger=by]For: Hexalan Re: #19[/trigger]
 
Your two stories have the small and intimate crowd laughing. You can hear some people whisper "Oh that Professor..." and "Always such a character..." It was a much needed reprieve from the solemn day and the rude interruption that happened earlier. After some of the laughter dies down, Father Grimburrow brings everyone back to the duties at hand and finishes the funeral rites. They lower the casket into the ground and the final prayers are said. Once the grave diggers have finished their task of covering the casket, people start to wander back towards town. Most have now left the funeral procession and Kendra turns to you all and invites you back to her father's house for a drink and to hear the reading of the will. She gives you a brief description of where she lives in Ravengro and how to get there. She insists that you come straight away and to not go into town just yet. "People are still fearful of outsiders, Once word gets out that you are here with me it will be much easier for you."

Ravengro.jpg


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For your hilarious stories you have earned another trust point.

Her house is located at N on the map. You all go straight to her house for the reading of the will. You will have about 1 hour at the house before Councilor Vashian Hearthmount (the closest thing Ravengro has to a lawyer) comes to read the will. He has some other things to attend to so he will be along when he can. You can continue to get to know each other in character or you can ask Kendra some questions.
 
Tyrion says to Kendra "What was the business at the funeral? Why did those towns people not want to see the professor laid to rest there?"
 
Beornmar, following up to Tyrion says, "Yes, what was that about? Will people continue to harass you miss?" With nothing but concern in his voice. Beornmar looks at miss Kendra with nothing but concern.
 
Kendra takes a big sigh and ponders where to begin... She turns to the group after pacing back and forth for a moment. "Those fools are nothing but superstitious bigots. Do not pay any attention to them. They would not dare harass me, the sheriff was a good friend of my father's. Just ignore them. They thought that my father was a necromancer. They had never been so bold as to actually step up and do something like this. Now that father is laid to rest, I am sure they will go back to their boring ways."
 
"What happened to cause them to get such a cruel view of your father? Perhaps you should start at the beginning with this story, it is possible that we can help."

!roll 1d20+9 #Diplomacy
 
[trigger]Diplomacy: 29[/trigger]
[trigger=by]For: Statboy Re: #24[/trigger]
 
Kendra stops in her pacing and turns to you with a sad look in her eyes. She lets out a small sigh and begins to pace again. "Well as you know, Father was always interested in things that were... less than living. He spent his whole life studying undeath and everything related to it. Never for nefarious reasons! He wanted to study them so he knew how to get rid of them. So he knew how to combat them or teach others how to combat them. These imbeciles, who cannot string two thoughts together to save their own hides, think that because he studies undead that he must be a necromancer. Never once did Father create a zombie or try to become a lich. I pity them actually. They are so inept at logical thinking that they come to preposterous conclusions like necromancy. Father was not a necromancer." Kendra didn't realize that she was shaking you vigorously as she made her final statement. She quickly apologizes and goes back to pacing in the room. "Blasted councilor Hearthmount... Could you be any more of a stickler for being prompt?"

With that, a loud knock comes at the door. Exactly on time. Never a minute late, never a minute early, Councilor Hearthmount arrives at the front door of the Lorrimor Residence. Kendra rushes over and opens the door. The councilor gives a curt nod to Kendra and a glare for you all. Barely containing his disapproval of you as outsiders to his community. If he has anything to say he keeps it to himself as he goes about the business of reading the will. He produces a sealed scroll case. He shows Kendra, then the rest of you, that the Professor's seal is unbroken. After seeing everyone in attendance nod in approval that the seal is indeed the Professor's and that it was unbroken, he breaks the seal and empties the contents onto the table. A small iron key falls out of the tube, clattering noisily onto the table. Undaunted by the key, the councilor begins to read the will, eager to be done with the business and to get back home.


“I, Petros Lorrimor, being of sound mind, do hereby commit to this parchment my last will and testament. Let it be known that, with the exception of the specific details below, I leave my home and personal belongings entire to my daughter Kendra. Use them or sell them as you see fit, my child.

“Yet beyond the bequeathing of my personal effects, this document must serve other needs. I have arranged for the reading of this document to be delayed until all principals can be in attendance, for I have more than mere inheritance to apportion. I have two final favors to ask.

“To my old friends, I hate to impose upon you all, but there are few others who are capable of appreciating the true significance of what it is I have to ask. As some of you know, I have devoted many of my studies to all manner of evil, that I might know the enemy and inform those better positioned to stand against it. For knowledge of one’s enemy is the surest path to victory over its plans.

“And so, over the course of my lifetime, I have seen fit to acquire a significant collection of valuable but dangerous tomes, any one of which in the wrong circumstances could have led to an awkward legal situation. While the majority of these tomes remain safe under lock and key at the Lepidstadt University, I fear that a few I have borrowed remain in a trunk in my Ravengro home. While invaluable for my work in life, in death, I would prefer not to burden my daughter with the darker side of my profession, or worse still, the danger of possessing these tomes herself. As such, I am entrusting my chest of tomes to you, posthumously. I ask that you please deliver the collection to my colleagues at the University of Lepidstadt, who will put them to good use for the betterment of the cause.

“Yet before you leave for Lepidstadt, there is the matter of another favor—please delay your journey one month and spend that period of time here in Ravengro to ensure that my daughter is safe and sound. She has no one to count on now that I am gone, and if you would aid her in setting things in order for whatever she desires over the course of this month, you would have my eternal gratitude. From my savings, I have also willed to each of you a sum of one hundred platinum coins. For safekeeping, I have left these funds with Embreth Daramid, one of my most trusted friends in Lepidstadt—she has been instructed to issue this payment upon the safe delivery of the borrowed tomes no sooner than one month after the date of the reading of this will.

“I, Petros Lorrimor, hereby sign this will in Ravengro on this first day of Calistril, in the year 4712 AR.”


Upon completion of the will, Councilor Hearthmount looks to Kendra, who thanks him and dismisses him. Putting on a brave face, Kendra turns to the group. "Thank you again for coming and supporting me during this time. I will just need a few weeks to decide what to do. I still don't know if I plan on staying in Ravengro, or if I will go elsewhere. All I ask of you is that you remain in town until I decide as my father as asked of you. I insist that you stay here with me. We have plenty of rooms for you all as it is a spacious place. Room and board is the least that I can do. Now if you will excuse me a moment, I will go and get the chest." Kendra returns a short while later with a small object of oak and iron. Kendra is obviously nervous about the contents and offers you the key.
 
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Amberly takes up the key, twirling it about a finger. She stares at it for a moment, as if studying it, not trusting so minor an object even so tangentially related to Professor Lorrimor's cache of forbidden knowledge. "So," she begins, "shall we open it? Knowledge is power, after all. It might be best to at least know, in general, what we are to carry..."
 
Tyrion starts looking for wine "Like it or not this is our delivery to make, not treasure to steal. Best to leave it closed. Perhaps we should keep the chest and key separate. Amberly guard the key, Beornmar guard the chest if you would be so kind."
 
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"Certainly. Miss, if you would be so kind as to tell me which room I may stay in. I would take the chest to my room."
 
Amberly looks pointedly at Tyrion. "Who said anything about stealing? Keeping the objects separate is sensible, and I have no objection to Beornmar holding that, but the good professor did specifically say he did not want Kendra involved it it. So as for this"---at this point she tucks the key into her bodice---"I can safeguard it myself."
 
Kendra looks at the group and then back to the chest. "But aren't you at all curious to see what is inside? Surely my father trusted you enough to know what books he wants to send back to Lepistadt..."
 

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