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Silas does his best to listen to what the others are discussing, at least enough to try and figure out their next move.
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For the rest of the dinner, Soren keeps up with polite small talk with the lady and whoever else approaches him. He refrains from eating anything, however, and seems a little anxious to be done with the whole thing. After the dinner, when Silas puts forth his plan, he listens attentively and then nods.
The plan sounds solid enough. Should we take one of the residents with us as a guide? They don't seem to be threatening, but we must still remain wary. Has anyone sensed anything untoward from them?.
He checks his quiver, makes sure his arrows are all loose and ready to pull as he speaks.
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At Soran's comment, Silas casts detect evil but comes up negative.
As the meal winds down, the halfling mother wraps some fruit and nuts in a linen cloth and hands it to Arion. "I apologize for how I acted before. Please, take this by way of apology. For all of you, should you get hungry later. And if you have time, could you please look into my husband's death. I know it was all supposed to be suicide, but I just can't bear the thought of my dear Wei... doing something... like..." She starts to break into tears again and excuses herself, her sons embracing her as they retire elsewhere.
So far as options for a guide go, Di Duang remains in the room to clear the table and asks the Professor if he would like to help her "tidy up".
Finally, Gastidem is heading back to the gardens with the man and one of the human females.
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Arion spaces out for a few minutes, lost in thought. As he is about to ask Miriya what she was doing in the library, the meal comes to an end and he just says "Uhm..."
At the mother's request, Arion nods solemnly. We will see.
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"Something is not right here. Why would a follower of Korada commit suicide?" He looks at Golthune. And is your Pacifist God one to take away the limbs and digits of his followers at random?
At Silas' plan, Arion nods slowly. That is fine with me, but... maybe the Professor here should see if he can wring any other information out of Di Duang. He elbows the professor and winks at him.
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"Tidy up? Well, I think I...ah, well...perhaps it would be a good chance to learn different practices." He turns to Soran. "Perhaps you should go on without me. Or help them in the garden instead. I'll help our beautiful host clean up and then explore the library. Meet me there afterward and we can see to the crypts later."
The half-elf barely waits for any reaction before he stands, helping clear the plates.
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Before they part ways, Arion nudges the professor. "Take advantage of the situation; get us some information. But remember we represent the Pathfinders. Be a good guy and don't take advantage of the situation."
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The temple garden is badly overgrown with tangled vegetation. Vines and briars climb the temple walls on three sides, surrounding the large windows into the chapel and the smaller windows into the library. The garden itself is a profusion of flowering bushes and weeds. Except for a clear space in the center of the garden, the dense weeds grow taller than an adult human. At the center of the garden sits a crumbling fountain, long dry, with a statue of a noble turtle in the center. This must be the Korada's Kiss you heard about. Heaps of foliage choke two similar fountains, each with a large stone orb resting in the fountain’s center.
"Beautiful, i'n't it? Lotsa green, lotsa health." He goes to tend to some weeds in the opposite corner, allowing you reign of the area.
Documenting the garden is a slightly daunting task. The original plan has long since been overgrown, so you would have to cut through the brush and dross. With a successful Profession (gardener) or Knowledge (nature), you could make shorter work of it.
Currently, no one is here.
As you are in there, you notice a knife on a chopping block seems to rock back and forth. With a chill feeling down your spine, you realize the haunt for what it is and have a chance to react before it takes hold in full!
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"Nice place. So this is for more than just listening to sermons, but also for some type of meditation. Do you think this might be the meditation room we were told about?" He makes his way over to the fountain, a clearly magical feature. He dips his hand into the water. I wonder if the water itself has any magical properties. If anything, surely a goodly god like Korada would give it healing or something beneficial.
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"Nice place. So this is for more than just listening to sermons, but also for some type of meditation. Do you think this might be the meditation room we were told about?" He makes his way over to the fountain, a clearly magical feature. He dips his hand into the water. I wonder if the water itself has any magical properties. If anything, surely a goodly god like Korada would give it healing or something beneficial.
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Dario is smiling and just about to pull the beautiful girl closer, when his eyes go to the knife and he gets a chill down his spine. He suddenly realized they are likely in danger. "Di Duang, watch out! Get away!" Not knowing anything about the haunt, he simply tries to get him and the girl away and back out the door.
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When asked about his gardening habits, he points around you. "Ya got paths there and no pricklies, what more do ya want? Am I to restore it to its former glory of centuries past all by one onesies? Would take more man power than I got!"
The gnome is not lying. There is a serious amount of work in front of you. Probably close to 12 man-hours with Soran's horticultural expertise, which doesn't seem to help much in this instance.
Looking at the statue, you see that the mouth of the turtle, likely from whence the water bubbled and flowed, has been enlarged to allow a petitioner to insert their hand up to the wrist.
As you try to pull the girl away, she looks at you with blank eyes. She grabs the dagger and with a sad look, plunges it into her neck.
She just barely misses the major artery in her neck and, coming to her senses, screams a bloodcurdling cry.
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A hallucinogen... that might explain some things.
Arion turns around and runs back into the temple, trying to find the room the screaming came from.
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Soren nods to the gnome.
You speak the truth. I hope I didn't offend you.
When the scream reverberates throughout the temple, Soren draws his bow and nocks an arrow as he sprints behind Arion. As he arrives in the kitchen, he stands guard as Arion heals the woman.
He waits until the woman is stable, and for other members of the party to come into the room before he tells each party member quietly
One of the weeds in the garden is a hallucinogen. It might go a way long way to explaining this place and it's... Inhabitants.
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Silas rips his sword from its sheath and runs back toward the sound of the scream. He gets there just in time to see Arion kneeling by the woman and Dario's explanation of what happened. Eyes narrowed in suspicion, he looks around the room and mumbles a short prayer. "I am the light in the darkness, and from me evil cannot hide."
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As everyone rushes to see what happens, they also see the residents of the temple rushing toward the sound, eyes wide in panic. The halfling woman especially so.
Dario breaks the handle of the blade which was merely a weak and worn wood. The blade dings and scrapes on the stone floor.
Silas cannot detect any evil thereabouts.
Di Duang, still raspy despite the healing, says "I don't know... We were standing here and something... I felt as if I weren't in control of myself. Like everything was being viewed from a ways off. Then suddenly I am in pain and my hands wrapped around the handle of the knife... in my..." she breaks down into sobs.
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At the woman's confirmation, Arion says "Your husband did not take his own life willingly. A possession haunts this room." He looks at the broken knife. "... a dark spirit."
"I will help you move Di Dhuang. I suggest none of you enter this room."
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Silas's face is grim. "If that's true, it means there are demons about this place. Only evil spirits can possess an item like that. Must be well-hidden, because Iomedae's light shows me evil spirits and I don't see any. But in any case, we have to be on our guard." Silas kneels beside the woman. "Hasn't Dakang warned you about those spirits?"
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The woman replies weakly. "We always felt some sort of unease in there, but that was it. At least, till..." Her voice trails off looking at the Halfling widow. "We usually just put it out of our minds until we figure a way to end the haunt's grasp."
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Well, in that case, have you had any ideas? Also, were you aware that one of the weeds growing in your garden is a hallucinogen? I fear there may be things here that are darker and deeper than anyone realized. That turtle statue didn't strike me as being exactly benevolent either.
His words are blunt, but his voice is soft and kind. It's apparent that he cares, but he is also determined to get to the bottom of this and end it.
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"Are there any other places with haunts? Has anyone told Dakang about this one? If not, we'll tell him when he speaks later." Haunting of objects are above my pay grade, that's best left for the priests and their magic. But hopefully, even a priest of a lesser god like Korada will be able to get rid of this problem.
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Dario tries to understand how to destroy the haunt, but he says, "Perhaps we need to board up the kitchen for now. Until we can better understand the spirits here, that is. They can usually be destroyed, but you have to know the right way."
The Professor listens to the others describe the overgrown garden. "That does seem odd. I think there's more going on here than we understand. Maybe even that they understand. I think the library is the place to go to find the answers. Perhaps it can tell us more about the spirit here, the fountain, and the use of hallucinogenics. Maybe even this turtle statue."
"I think we shouldn't be alone, but I don't know if the library will be productive work for everyone. Maybe half of us work on clearing the garden? It sounds like we'll have to do that before documenting it. But no one wander off on their own."
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Dario does not think of any connection, positive or negative, between Korada and these things.
This spacious room is crammed with narrow bookshelves and large tables. Many shelves are empty and the remaining scrolls and tomes seem tattered and sagging. A small open door looks into a tidy office. The room is clean and bright despite a general atmosphere of abandonment. Several windows look into the garden.
To complete your assigned task of cataloging the library, you must meticulously log each book and scroll here. Although several of the shelves are empty, thousands of items remain, some nearly illegible due
to age. This time-consuming task takes 40 person-hours of labor. If only something were available which already had a list of things here...
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Dario nods at the library, but frowns as he sees it in such disrepair. His mood lightens as he sees the neat office. "Well, this may be a bigger effort than I thought. Here's what we need to do: Begin going through the books, making a list of all the titles. Note scrolls separately. Someone can help me search this office. It seems organized and if there are clues to what's going on here, maybe it holds the key."
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"Dario, I agree we must catalogue the library. But first I think we should speak with Dakang. How do we find him?"
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Soran returns to the people who are still tending Di Duang to discover that they truly do not know. They go in and let Korada guide them to the tome they need to see. Though one thinks that if there is one there, it would be in the office. There are no tomes in there so they typically stay out of it.
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Lo and behold, Soran finds an unremarkable tome which catalogues everything in the library... including things that aren't there.
So there is still work to be done, however now it is more a task of running through and marking off what is not there. This should only take 6 person-hours (in other words, 1 hour with everyone working).