Quillary slow walks towards Calypso. “People, even elves, have a difficult time handling death.” Her eyes cloud and her faces gets sad a moment.

”The act of bringing something, or someone, back across the veil is not a business transaction. It is emotional, even if that emotion is odd, as in Marigold’s case. To my mind, there is just one of these characters who would do what we have seen. Bitter-Blossom pines for her sister, and I believe she has orchestrated this in an attempt to bring her back, and that she planted the spiritroot on Rooster that Marigold found.”

”But I do not know that we have proof,” she finishes lamely.

"Bitter-blossom does seem to be the obvious answer, but, " Jorin is cocks his head towards Rooster,  "He made an effort to touch every one of the three, and also a bunch of us, purposefully, to spread the spiritroot.  I think he was trying to get as many undead here as possible, though I admit, i know not why."

(I assume that the group is still talking it out while still 2 minutes away from Calypso. Hildigrim highlighted the interviews in post 2516, if you are having trouble remembering all the things that were said.)

Drusk will take a contrary position, but mostly to hammer out a plausible chain of events, if the group agrees on who to accuse.

"If Bitter-Blossom planted the herb, that would account for her saying Rooster bought some (a lie to cover her tracks), but Rooster saying he didn't.

"But then, Rooster said Marigold went through his pack, and insists she is the one who planted the pouch. Maybe he was mistaken about when the pouch got in there... Marigold made it sound like they didn't spend much time together, and didn't mention anything about going through Rooster's stuff. Can we get their stories to line up, with B-B being the culprit?"

Thinking back on the interviews (thank you DDP!) Quillary has a few thoughts.

"Spiritroot seems pretty important to what is going on, and Bitter-Blossom did ask Marigold for spiritroot, she said. But when we spoke with Bitter-Blossom, she both said she did not carry it, said she didn't deal with 'that kind of product,' but also called it 'amazing' and confessed to selling some to Rooster. She said, 'Rooster bought the last of it earlier.' Then again, she is clearly out of her mind, from grief, perhaps."

"My instincts are to distrust the bard, but I may be biased. Perhaps he had a plan, and it went awry? The ghost of Amphail seemed distraught when we destroyed the zombie of Amphail, perhaps Amphail has been trying to eliminate Rooster this whole time?"

"I will admit, I am stumped. I do not have a head for this."

Quote from Mingofaust >>

"The ghost of Amphail seemed distraught when we destroyed the zombie of Amphail

Drusk: "Was the ghost distraught? That zombie was made to look like a mockery of the memory of Amphail." (description in post 2228) "Making the face look trollish? Amphail was killed by trolls. Whoever created that zombie didn't seem to like Amphail the way the townspeople here do... The ghost of Amphail was rumored to walk the streets for decades, and was peaceful. This zombie was hurting and terrorizing people."

"Quillary, you mentioned that the spiritroot seems important. I think this zombie is too. Marigold said it seemed to have special enchantments on it. And Jorin found a magic belt on the last one we destroyed... One of these zombies was pre-made before the tavern fight. But someone would have been around to make another one for the street fight, and again for the alley-trash bin fight.

"Too bad that all our suspects have special skills that might be able to create a greater zombie. Marigold is a powerful necromancer. Bitter-Blossom has herbs that can make a creature (like a blink dog) bigger and stronger. And Regis has contacts with the Zhentarim, who have the resources."

“The zombie also fell apart into ordinary objects after each fight, until the last one. That’s gotta be important.”

Quote from JcAndD >>

“The zombie also fell apart into ordinary objects after each fight, until the last one. That’s gotta be important.”

(OOC: And never explained in the module, so I'll make up a reason.)

Drusk: "Those things are probably not cheap. The criminal's resources were probably stretched, to the point of needing to use the original greater zombie in that last fight."

"You did point out," Hildigrim says, thoughtful, "that it was odd that, while the rest of the ghosts have held onto their hosts until said host has been rendered unconscious, the ghost inhabiting Rooster was expelled by a simple kick to the chin by yours truly." The halfling clucks his tongue. "But I can't intuit the reason Rooster would unleash monsters on Amphail."

Jorin nods at Hildigrim, "Aye, that is what I do not understand as well."

“His ‘interactive experience?’” Quillary muses. “He is the obvious answer, but he seems more like a dolt than a criminal. Perhaps he was used? His fear of the zombie was real, I warrant.”

Drusk: "Between Hildigrim's suspicions and Quillary's doubts, it sounds like we should consider Rooster as a suspect, and see if that fits with what we know.

"Rooster was around all 3 times when that zombie showed up. We'll have to think if any of the others could have done that too.

"For a motive, we don't know him well enough... Through her "mushroom" haze, Bitter-Blossom remembered: "He made an off-hand comment about how fun it would be if Amphail were a ghost town." When Rooster told us his theory, he wasted time to tell us about "Amphail, the Town of the Dead"... I'd hate to think he caused all this terror just to promote his songs. Maybe he has some secret grudge against the people here."

"Can we not just beat it out of him?" Quillary muses softly.

"Calypso passed a bunch of laws to get out-of-control adventurers to behave. I don't think assaulting a well-known bard would be acceptable, especially when he is standing right in front of her.

"We don't need an iron-clad case. We just need for her to decide that we found enough, that the culprit should be investigated more by her people."

“I agree. Rooster may be obvious, but I think signs are pointing to him. Plus, it seems like a pretty bardy thing to be able to make zombies out of objects.”

I wish we had compared descriptions of the wailing woman ghost and Bitter-Root. I wish we had looked in Bitter-Blossom's back yard. I have no idea. I'll go with whatever.

I have decided this:

If Calypso will allow it, I'd like to get her cooperation in casting identify on both Rooster (I have to touch him for a whole minute while casting it) and on his harp (another minute). If they're OK with waiting 11 minutes for both, I could do them as rituals, but that is probably pushing it.

(What wailing woman ghost? The sobbing ghost of post 2294 had an indistinct shape, where you could not tell the gender. The sobbing ghost in post 2556 was a male in plate mail. In hindsight, you think that both sightings were the same ghost, and that it was Amphail.)

Later on, Hildigrim can cast Identify on the harp, but that's it. Rooster will not endure being accused, when he says Marigold is to blame. But with the party backing him up, Calypso would agree to spare 1 minute to check on the harp.

Jorin's eyes light up with child-like glee at the mention of persuading Rooster with fists, and then he slumps, sad-like, when Drusk mentions Calypso's likely response.

"Are we in accord to put forth the bard for further investigation?  Perhaps after Hildi sorcels his instrument?"

(OOC: Give me the list of arguments / evidence that you will mention to Calypso, to support the case against Rooster and/or reasons you aren't accusing any of the others.

If any of you are in a mood for Perry Mason, you can give a speech in character, but it is probably easier to list the basic details and imagine it was part of a passioned argument.

For Hildigrim, I will mention the results of the Identify spell, which will happen later on: the harp never had any spells on it, good or ill. But that just means that Rooster was mistaken about it being cursed.)

Or he.was lying! :)

Please add to the list what you would like ...

1. He was present at each greater zombie sighting.
2. He has/had in his possession a suspicious pouch.
3. He has the spiritroot mark, which he passed on to Hildigrim and Jorin.
4. The ghost that was possessing him did not act normally and was able to be expelled with a simple kick.
5. He thinks Amphail being a ghost town sounds like a good idea.