For Whom the Bell Tolls

* It’s evening now and we decide to head to the town hall to eat something and avoid Mary. William collects some food from the general store while we go restart the hearth and put on a kettle for tea.
* We talk about what our next step should be.
	+ Martha wants to investigate the mill
* Cyrus offers to speak to the ghost of Geoff. . . we’re all surprised but he’s dead serious (pun intended).
	+ He goes to the hearth and sits down, pulling out a crystal ball (?)
	+ He starts muttering under his breath.
	+ We all watch intently.
* The fire starts growing in size. It touches the keystones, reaches out, spins around and forms a humanoid shape. Cyrus’s voice gets louder, the fire grows features, the mangled corpse of Geoff Hammerstrom forms within the flames. We watch as his fatal injuries start knitting themselves back together.
* Cyrus welcomes him and apologizes for the nature of his death. He asks him how he died.
* Through the crackling and hissing of the flames we hear him respond. We learn several things from the flames of Geoff Hamerstrom:
	+ He was murdered by a creature that hunted him through the graveyard and forest and ravaged him.
	+ There was a note slipped under his door to meet there. James knew about the meeting. He thought it was the priest inviting him to share info on the sale. His briefcase was with him at the meeting.
	+ Half the town was ready to sell.
	+ The Chamberlain woman seemed to know more than she let on. Seemed like she was following them, but didn’t know about the plans to level the church.
	+ The town is too afraid, many are suspicious of outsiders. He had never heard of the Grim.
	+ There was no time to research the church, the deal had to be made quickly due to debts & construction costs.
	+ Something beyond the beast is responsible, something dark ties him to the forest.
* The fire dies back down and his visage disappears.
* Cyrus asks for whiskey. Signe had been holding her breath the whole time, clutching the medallion around her neck. Martha and William are shocked & awed. Alec compliments Cyrus on his talent.
* Cyrus agrees that he thinks Geoff is stuck here because of how strong his presence was.
* We think maybe investigating the church again is a good idea, but Martha refuses to go behind the priest’s back.
	+ We go to the mill instead.
* We sneak out to the mill once the town is asleep. It’s a huge building on the river with a large water wheel, stone foundation, a barn door, and a side door.
	+ Signe picks the lock on the door.
	+ We go in cautiously and head to a back office.
* We see scrape marks on the floor on either side of a locker and move it to the side.
	+ Inside is the safe! It’s painted with a pentagram and a latin inscription that repeats; “Liberorum Foedus”, the League of the Free.
* We open the safe with the combination Alec found. Inside we find:
	+ An ornate dagger (very plain hilt, looks to be one piece)
	+ A folded robe (green, well worn, gold threaded tassel)
	+ An ancient looking book.
* Alec grabs the book. It’s very old, with tiny writing. It’s translated to English but so archaic it’s hard to read.
	+ Early Germanic
	+ Occult pictographs that seem to describe a ritual of sacrifice (gross), a repeated ritual of renewal. It’s more like a diary. There is mention of a timeframe but Alec can’t make out what it is.
	+ The book makes no reference to Vaesen or Grims.
	+ It’s a general renewal, not a ritual for a specific thing.
* Bored with talk of sacrifices, Martha picks up a pencil and starts doodling
	+ She absentmindedly starts tapping, images form:
		- A plinth similar to the altar in the church.
		- A rock formation that looks like a cave
		- The head of a raven with it’s mouth open, cawing the words “Ding-dong” three times.
* Signe sees what Martha has done. Martha sees that she sees and is flustered.
	+ She tries to hide what she drew.
* Signe doesn’t acknowledge it further, but turns away like she didn’t see anything.
* Alec wants to keep the items, especially the book. William argues with them, and we all decide it’s best to leave the book behind.
* Alec can tell the book was pressed with a manual press that predates the 1400s/15th century.
	+ Predates the founding of America
	+ We know the church also predates this time.
* We put everything back the way we found it and lock everything back up.

Cyrus puts his hand on the door as we make to leave and from the town we hear the church bells ring.