The creature wakes up, gasps, and is struck down.
Darius ends it.
It ends.
Darius doesnt wipe the blood off looking around, " Let's get to looking through that secret door. We need some evidence and find a lead "
The door is locked. REALLY locked. The Scion appears to have magically fortified the doors.
Jones is unable to open the lock, but feels as if he could get it if he tries hard enough.
On the fourth attempt, Jones disables the locking mehanism, and the entire wall lifts up in sections (assuming someone lifts them).
Inside is a secret room, decorated with disturbing carvings of devilfish, krakens, octopuses, squid, and other bizarre sea life, as well as unsettling depictions of human women mating with strange fish-men from the sea.
At the far end, a semicircle of water stands before a large bloodstained altar. On the wall above the altar, a carving of a giant, unwinking octopoid eye gazes over the room, surrounded by sinister twisting runes.
If you were somehow in doubt before, this clinches it. This is definitely a temple to Dagon.
Jones searches the room.
Darius will do the obvious detect Evil and examine the blood for freshness. " This is disgusting... The Mayor and his people must be informed. As I am sure we did not rid them of All these traitors. "
"The mayor and his people might be in on it."
The blood doesn't seem particularly fresh, but it doesn't seem particularly old either at the freshest, maybe a week at most. They seem to sacrifice people here quite regularly by the crusted blood intermingled with the new.
The altar, obviously, radiates evil as it is "sanctified" by Dagon's power, but nothing else pings.
"The mayor and his people might be in on it."
"Are you forgetting that the mayor was the one who sent us here in the first place? What could he possibly gain from making us aware of the situation, when otherwise we might have walked by the temple without a second glance?"
"He wanted us to die here, maybe. I'm just saying we can't be too careful."
Sledge will listen for footsteps or spellcasting elsewhere in the building.
Sledge hears only the sounds of silence.
Out of the shadows rushes an Owlbear flesh golem, constructed from only owlbears and owlbear accessories. It smashes Jones.
Jones is rendered into little more than paste.
Jones finds nothing of real interest in this room.
"Well, I'd say that concludes our "investigation". Let's report back to the mayor."
He sighs. "And Sledge, you and the rest are welcome to come with me if you're worried. Still, I think the only thing the mayor is guilty of is withholding information due to spinelessness."
What Jones actually does is check the left door for traps, then open it.
The door is neither trapped nor locked, and it opens on a gruesome scene. A horrid decayed smell wafts from the room, and it doesn't take a perceptive person to see why.
Seven corpses lay piled up in this room. Six of the corpses are dressed as normal Illmarsh villagers, but the last's clothing is a bit finer and sturdier, suggesting he was a traveler or merchant of some kind.
All of the corpses are withered, and their necks end in ragged stumps. The heads are entirely missing.
There is a secret passage on the south wall. Much less well hidden than the last.
Darius' nose grimaces at the smell and sight. " Foul indeed. " As he looks them over.
Darius relays more bone-chilling news " This is disgusting, they were not even beheaded. Instead something.. undead or otherwise... ripped itself out of thier necks. And they couldnt have died here.... they were moved. There is no smell or sight of brain matter. This is happening somewhere else.. we need to find that somewhere. We should keep searching or talk to this.. mayor again. "
There is an odd, unnatural scent in the bodies, but it's faint. Whatever made it is no longer here.
No. Any trail it might have made has long since gone cold, and would have led away from wherever the bodies were originally killed, not here.
"So the Dagonites were using these bodies to...incubate some sort of parasitic lifeform?!"
Jones shudders, looking more alarmed than usual.
"We can't waste time going back to the mayor. Whatever's happening here...it must be stopped immediately."
" Yes, something to that effect, it drained the body on its way out much like a vampire or shadow. I agree we should inform him.. However... there might be more to find and more importantly.. we need to retrieve the corpses.. as likely we did not get ALL of the followers. "
Darius goes around searching the rest of the rooms.
Jones does the same.
This is a lavishly furnished room, clearly for someone of high station in the church.
The room contains a large bed (between the windows), a large desk and comfy chair on the opposite wall, and a large sea chest in the corner.
Everything is of the finest quality, and this would be an ideal place to live were it not for the unpleasant fishy odor permeating the room.
Near the bed is a small leather chest with a coffer puled out of it. It looks as though it previously fit under the bed.
Several small potion bottles lay on the ground near it, drained of liquid.
Jones sees small slugs dotting the walls and ceilings of the room, and dotting the carpet as well, nearly invisible due to their size, the shadows, and the way they blend into the colors. Darius notes they have a similar smell to the corpses.