The party traveled to the village and began searching for whatever clues they could find scattered among the abandoned dwellings in the village:
A partially burned book of children's nursery rhymes and several other children's mementos.
All of these items seemed to be tied to several wraiths that were childlike in appearance. They party encountered six different wraiths in total-- one for each of the children who had been murdered. They also encountered the master wraith, a tangled nightmare of a hundred eyes accompanied by the droning sound of a swarm of hornets. Each eye represented a child the creature had slain and the droning sound was an echo of how the murderer had been slain by vigilantes- by being smeared with honey and attacked by hornets.
The Master Wraith
The party took refuge in the holy ground of the abandoned and decaying church of the Deep Umber, and when ready stepped out into the main street of the village and joined battle with the undead. They were victorious, putting the children's spirits to rest and tracking the master wraith to its lair and destroying it. Within the creature's lair they found four sets of children's remains. They returned to the village to look for more clues.
Professor Malort summoned an earth elemental to travel through the graveyard without disturbing any of the mortal remains, and discovered that two of the six graves had remains. After performing the appropriate rites, the remains were exhumed in order to question them at trial. They gathered the remains of the other four children from the lair and headed back to Hannsport.
Once back home, they began preparations for the upcoming trial.
On the first day of the trial, opening statements were given, and the judge determined that she would hear the charges of burglary and theft.
The prosecution called Brother Markus and Constable Dreng, who gave testimony that Gregor had been caught red-handed in the lab, that a window had been opened, and that the statue was gone.
Upon cross examination by Sir Donaghast, it was made clear that the statue had not been found. many other questions were asked and answered.
The paladin called no other witnesses, and the trial was adjourned.
On the second day, the charge of murder was tried to the court.
The prosecution called the eldest sister, who testified that she and all her village saw Gregor walk into town with the dead body of her friend, Elsa five years ago. She testified that Gregor fled when commanded to surrender and was not found again, and Elsa was the sixth child that ad been killed within only a few months.
Upon cross, it was determined that none of the sisters had seen Gregor actually commit any murders.
The paladin then called Brother Yorik as a witness. Brother Yorik used Speak with Dead to summon the spirits of the children, who testified that they had been strangled from behind, and so had not seen their killer. Only Elsa testified that a swarm of shadows had attacked her, and then she had died. She testified that Gregor was her friend and never would have killed her.
The children testified that their personal items kept them bound to a specific area of the village, although it was as if they were living in a terrible nightmare. Then only yesterday, they were at peace. Each of the personal items was provided, in addition to the barbed knife of Father Swarm.
Brother Yorik testified as to the meaning of these items and the unholy curse of a wraith.
Gregor also testified, but because of his limited intellect, his testimony was thoroughly inconclusive.
Upon closing arguments, Judge Magda retired to contemplate a verdict, which she would give the following morning.
What would her verdict be? The party waited anxiously!
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