Between you, you make short work of the stirges. It seems they would rather feat on an easy meal than try to take on a live option.
The grisly mess done with, Callie steps in and examines the room, her jaw set as she tries not to show disgust at the scene before her.
"These poor folk," Callie indicates the dead bodies. "Our focus is on finding the boy's body, but..." She turns to Gwernach, "Is there anything we can do to... I don't know... undesecrate them?"
Valeria sweeps the bodies of the large insects to the ground, leaving the body clear. "Poor bastard," she mutters. "Callie's right. Should we say a few words or something?" As the others deliberate, she crouches, looking over the body of the derro. Perhaps he had keys, or something of use.
Callie looks around but apart from body parts that have been drained of blood, there is nothing of note to see.
Nor does Valeria find anything of use on the dead derro.
Gwernach examines the corpse. Other than a violation of the body, he sees no evidence of there being foul magic at play, at least not yet.
Shrugging, he opens his mind to the divine energies intertwined in the world and gazes intently upon the remains.
Placing his palms together in prayer the dwarf closes his eyes and says a few kind words in Celestial.
Gwernach is confident that the activities of this room are purely for the purpose of creating a golem.
Finally he says a few words as a mark of respect for the various body parts found here.
Right then, shall we move on? The dwarf looks at the two exits leading out of the room, Which way ya figur'n Callie? Didn't Majenko say tha room had lots o'bodies? Gwernach points to the south west.
"Yeah, we better see if our boy is in there. Wilthorn, if you'd do the honors?" She follows behind the ranger as they get back to their work.
"With pleasure."
The ranger hikes his sword up onto his shoulder, before heading down the corridor.
You move to the south-west to find the majority of this room contains a nasty-looking stretch of mud — a partially collapsed sinkhole — kept damp by rivulets of water seeping from the walls.
A patch of solid ground extends into the mud to form an island, on which is heaped a reeking pile of body parts. To the north, a rickety wheelbarrow sits on its side against the wall.
The bodies look too decayed to be the one you seek.
You now realise that you have exhausted all of the man-sized exits. Of all of the crawl-spaces, the one to the south-east of the room the stirges were in seems the largest. Whilst not allowing you to walk upright, most of you can walk through in a stooped position rather than having to crawl.
Eltanin say, "Wilthorn? Hold up a moment." and again shrugs Majenko out of her scarf. "One more quick look, friend. And step lightly, watch out for traps."
The pseudodragon disappears for a few moments and then returns. 'It is a corridor and it is empty of life.'
Gwernach looks expectantly over at Callie and Wilthorn, Well, we gonna move on then?
With a little nudging from the back, the group moves cautiously into the corridor .
"Let's go."
"If everybody's sure this time. Down we go."
You crawl through the narrow tunnel, some finding it more uncomfortable than others.
You reach the other side to find yourself in a simple corridor but quite eerie none the less. The walls and ceiling are encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls.
The dwarf pears at the skulls as the group heads north . A cold shiver runs down his spine, Well, thas no creepy at all. Wilthorn, check tha door ahead.
"I don't think I'm going to sleep very well tonight."
She moves forward, following Wilthorn.
Valeria remains stoically silent as she looks at the skulls. She simply stays in her place in the marching order, waiting to move forward.
You head north and come to a room full of wooden tables . They are stacked with beakers, vials and other alchemical gear.
One of the tables leans awkwardly and appears to have been repaired hastily. Broken glass is littered across it and the contents of the beakers covers the surface of the table and drips onto the floor. The smell is foul and rancid. Eltanin recognises the smell as rendered fats - clearly a by-product of necromantic research.
"Oo, now that's a specialized loadout for creating... actually, no it isn't. Sorry, the smell got my attention, this is just the kind of thing I was getting for my lab. I wonder what happened? It's almost like someone created something alchemically, and then that something did a lot of breakage..." Ellie looks the table over carefully. "You know, flesh golems can be a bit twitchy."
Gwernach tires to look around the room for any note books or documents that may hint at what Rolth was doing here. Per'aps some'than went wrong. Less be careful. El, anything ya think ya can salvage? Turning to Callie and Wilthorn he adds, We shouldn't leave this place in tack. Once we find tha lad's body, I wanna destroy what we can.
Callie nods at Wilthorn. "Oh, there's no doubt about that."
She looks at Eltanin. "You need any help looking through this stuff? If you tell me what to look for, I can try."
In truth there is little to see other than the tables, containers, broken glass and goo!
But Eltanin's version of events has the ring of truth about it.
"El, do you think... whatever did this... is still in here? Seems a lot of fluids were spilled; maybe there are footprints?" Valeria suggests, idly poking through the broken glass with the haft of her axe.
Valeria's wisdom stops Gwernach in his tracks. If it was one o'Rolth's creations, an it was still 'ere, we'd of seen it by now. Turning his head to look the room over for 'closets' the dwarf ponders, It may of escap'd or been lock'd up. Lets try'n leave it be. I suggest extra caution open'n doors an such.
Nothing discernible...
Eltanin looks over the equipment and sniffs. "Cleaning this stuff up for other use would be more trouble than it's worth. If we're wrecking it, then wreckage it is. Mind you, if it is still around I'd like to verify certain results...but not if it means getting ourselves pounded into the ground." Eltanin absently pulls out her weapon blanche, but doesn't actually apply it. She's still looking around the room for anything useful or informative.
El, can ya send Mr. Majenko there ta swoop ov'r inta tha next room? Gwernach points to the corridor exiting east. Then, turning to Callie the dwarf comments, Tha wee dragon's prov'n very useful!
Roran looks around the room with little interest. "Do we need to do anything in here? If not we should move on."
The pseudogragon travels through the narrow tunnel and exits . 'Just books,' you all hear in your head. 'Some sort of library.'
The sound of Majenko's voice in his head perks Gwernach up. Books? A twinkle in his eye, the dwarf gives an enthusiastic nod to Eltanin, Sounds promis'n eh Elly? Right, lets push on. Gwernach points to the narrow tunnel Majenko flew a moment ago.
Callie nods, some energy restored to the grim expression on her face. "Books aren't the boy, but they could prove useful."
A slightly demented grin washes over Eltanin's face. "Yeah, I give myself five minutes to look that library over for anything to do with our job. After that, Gwernach, you might need to drag me away. Might need Roran and Val to help..."
Am afraid Roran an Val'll be too busy try'n ta get me away lass. Ya on ya own. Gwernach quirks with a giddy smile.
"Come on, then. Let's get these five minutes over with." With a wry smile, Val follows the others.
You reach a room with two, free-standing bookshelves - filled with row upon row of tomes and scrolls.
Eltanin scans the contents. Most are concerned with the art of creating golems, with some on necromancy.
The ones she finds of use are a scroll of identify and a scroll of command undead.
"Basic library! Nicely stocked... oo, a copy of Rank Fens Tine's Playing God! And Dokkins' The God Collusion, that can't be an original copy... These scrolls are the basic survival toolkit for long-term habitation of a modern graveyard, which is nice. But what I didn't see are maps, inventories of graves or personal journals. Of course, that was just a quick browse." Eltanin shrugs, ready to press on though reluctantly.
Roran, not being one much for books, keeps watch while the party peruses the room.
Callie thumbs through a book or two. "Much as I hate to say it, if the library is all like this corpse defiling stuff, we should probably burn it when we're at the stage of wrecking this place." Still, she flips through a book or two--even doing so while walking back out of the room--to see if she can find anything on flesh golem creation that might be relevant to the body of the boy they are looking for, such as how long a body should/shouldn't be dead or what might a mage do to a dead body when preparing it for such a ritual. She does this for two reasons: first, to see how likely it might be that the corpse has been already turned into a flesh golem, and second, if she believes it has not yet been turned into a flesh golem, what condition they are likely to find the body in.
Am not keen on tha undead, or use'n tha dead in this way. Gwernach runs his finger along the spines of some of the books, However, a golem can be of use. He keeps his eye open for any books of interest.
Further perusal reveals nothing of what you are looking for specifically but there a couple of books specifically about diseases that are of interest.
Callie is able to piece the following information:
A flesh golem is a collection of stolen humanoid body parts, stitched together into a single composite form. Its cadaverous flesh has a sickly green or yellowish tint. A flesh golem typically stands 8 feet tall and weighs 500 pounds.
A flesh golem cannot speak, although it can emit a hoarse roar of sorts. Although most flesh golems are mindless, there are persistent rumors of unusual golems who somehow retain the memories of a previous life.
The pieces of a flesh golem must come from normal humanoid corpses that have not decayed significantly. Assembly requires a minimum of six different bodies — one for each limb, the torso (including head), and the brain. In some cases, more bodies may be necessary.
Callie therefore deduces that it is quite possible the corpse has already been used - but only if the necromancer worked immediately on it. It is more likely it is waiting to be worked upon. The age of the corpse suggests it will still be in 'good condition' if found untampered with.
"Oh, but it's not all about the undead or golems. Look at this - Bilious' Symptonomicon,, and - is that Arcane Hybridization for Dummies by Cryptopakolypse the Unseasoned? See, forget golems. Give me a hybrid. A cute, stable hybrid you can make friends with. The duckbunny doesn't look like it would be so useful, but a swanmule might have real potential." Ellie is starting to show the first signs of folio fever, a condition that occasionally strikes academics unsupervised in the field.
"Oooookay, that's your five minutes." Not particularly caring whether it's actually been five minutes or not, Valeria takes Ellie gently-but-firmly by the upper arm and drags her backwards out of the room. "We should really be moving on," she adds to the others, "because I don't know how long I can restrain her without hurting her." The hint of a smile seems to reach her eyes as she keeps her grip on the half-elf's shoulder.
"Don't know if this is is good news or bad news, but it takes at least six corpses to make a flesh golem. We can hope the body has been prepped but not made part of the completion ritual yet. Let's go, before it's too late."
Callie smiles at Eltanin. "Tell you what, when we're done with our mission, you can tell me all about the alchemical applications for preservation and antiseptics..."
With a sigh, taking note of where he left off, Gwernach puts the book he was flipping through back on the shelf. Taking up his axe and shield, he moves to the door.
You move forward - almost literally prying Eltanin's fingers from the door-frame as you exit.
Ahead the nauseating mixture of decay and strange chemicals fills your nostrils as you enter the room. Glinting saws, pliers, long stitching needles and other surgical equipment lines the walls. On top of a sturdy wooden table in the centre of the room lies a humanoid shape - stitched together from a patchwork of dozens of different bodies. If it were standing, you'd estimate it would be seven feet tall.
Roran's bad mood isn't being helped by the contents of all the rooms. He gives a scowl at this one and the patchwork nightmare. "What the bloody hell is that?"
"That's a flesh golem," Callie manages to choke out, trying to swallow her gorge at the sight of the thing. She takes a deep breath. "We need to see if the boy is sewn into that thing..."
She carefully steps inside.