Scoria would be found out in front of the House of Blue Stones, her home away from home here in Sandpoint. The oread had been in a meditative stance since morning, rooted to the spot as she practiced calmly. Seeing Thaddeus' approach permitted her to take a break - despite the rather chill turn of the weather, her attire had more or less stayed the same - less than one truly ought to wear when it was cool and windy.
"A murder?" She inquires when informed, thinking it over before sighing. "I am not an investigator but a stonemason. However, you will probably be as insistent as the last time. I'll help you with this, but do not think that means I am accepting a watch position - I am awaiting word on another project my guild can offer me work on in Magnimar."
Khrondak is skinning a wild boar in Daviren's kitchen when Thaddeus shows up asking for his presence at the saw mill. He puts down the knife and calls Daviren at the stables, recommending that he finish the job lest the unnatended meat go to waste. The cleric tells Thaddeus to go on and warn the others while he gets ready; back in his room, he dons the armor and equips himself with his weapons after a few minutes of praying. He shows up at the saw mill just as Thaddeus arrives with other members of the group.
"Is it Nualia? Is she back?" Bel'Tanis' initial question of Thaddeus betrays what he's been worried over for the past month. Bel'Tanis excuses himself from the cathedral, grateful for Father Zantus' understanding and permissive nod, and matches Thaddeus' brisk pace on the way to the sawmill.
Matthias is hunched over his desk, furiously drawing sketches of the crime scenes from the Chopper murders, when Thaddeus knocks. Matthias starts, rushing to the door, blinking against the outside. "Murder? Murder, you say? Let me get my... Yes, that and that!" Matthias grabs his pack and his multi-lensed tinker's cap and rushes out the door. "No, don't tell me anything! I don't want to prematurely conjecture about the crime!"
A cold drizzling rain begins as you make your way to the sawmill. By the time you arrive a crowd of gawkers have gathered, which are being held off by a ring of watchmen. You see Sheriff Hemlock standing behind the watch, he motions you to come forth.
"Greetings all, sorry we had to reunite under such unpleasantness. But I have asked Sergeant Thaddeus to gather all of you, because I feel your talents are the best suited to deal with this latest threat. We have another ritual style slaying of two people within the sawmill. Very similar to the Chopper method several years back. Perhaps a copycat. The bodies were discovered this morning by Ibor Thron one of mill workers. And there was a similar murder two nights ago in one of the farms outside of town, so we have multiple murders now. I'm afraid this may be much worse than goblins."
Then the Sheriff seems to hesitate before continuing, "and there is this," he then pulls out a piece of bloody parchment out of his belt pouch and hands it to Midori. "I'm afraid the killer left you a note..."
"Midori, you will learn to love me, desire my in time as she did. Give yourself to the pack and it shall all end." signed, your lordship.
The sheriff's words remind Khrondak of their visit to Chopper isle and, most of all, to the artifact they found there. "Hm. I wonder if father Zanthus destroyed the knife, after all. Could it be that it has once again found a vessel for its bloodthirst?" He then turns to Midori and asks "What does it say?", refering to the killer's note.
Bel'Tanis shakes his head in disbelief, "Two murders? That's... that's horrible!"
"The act is reprehensible, yes," Scoria comments to Bel'Tanis' exclamation. She steps forward and glances at Midori's note when she looks at it, thinking quietly about that as she heads into the sawmill. The monk treads lightly amidst the scene, searching the scene and trying to determine what happened in here.
Matthias immediately pulls down the lenses on his tinker's cap and begins to bend over, examining the crime scene with minute care to details. He begins sketching notes, diagrams, drawings, all the while muttering softly to himself. He moves all around the floor, careful to disturb nothing, but instead prods things with a metal tool with a small hook on the end. All in all, he looks like some exotic bird doing a mating dance for no one.
Thaddeus lets the others get to work at what they do best, specifically Scoria and Matthias investigating the finer details that may offer clues. Thaddeus looks grim at the word of the murders, and then before they get into too much detail, does what he's good at. He holds up a finger to the Sherriff to allow him a minute, then addresses the gathered citizens. "Please, citizens, return to your homes. I'm certain you are all curious as to what is going on, but the good men of the watch will be unable to perform their duties to the fullest if their efforts are spent on keeping people away from the scene. Besides, given the weather's gray turn, if you are to remain, you must all surely become ill standing out here in the rain. When there is official word of the goings on ready to be heard by the public, I'm certain that the good Sherriff or Madam Mayor will put the word out."
Midori pales as she reads the note. "What the....huh? This makes no sense. Um, who were the victims?"
Looking down with eyes closed, Khrondak says a brief prayer and makes a hand gesture in the air. He then opens his eyes, and his dark irises and pupils becomes clear as milk, turning his eyes into a clear, white globe. He circles around the bodies and looks for tracks leading out of the crime scene. He bends down to look closer whenever he spots something of interest, and starts following whatever tracks he finds.
[dice=Survival to look for tracks]1d20+14[/dice]
Most of the crowd disperses after your plea to them to return home, however a few stay and demand answers for what has befallen in the mill.
The Sheriff looks at Midori a bit puzzled after her comments. "So you have no idea what that note is about?"
He then looks to Bel'Tanis, "You don't have anything to do with this do you? I had heard you had an altercation with Ven Vinder and his daughter Shayliss and it so happens on the victims is Katrine."
The interior of the mill is a horror seen. The log cutting room is strewn with blood. A female is partially dismembered in the log splitter, certainly a horrible way to die. But even worse is the a naked man chained wall with cruel looking hooks holding him up. His the skin of his face has been sliced off and is missing the lower jawbone. Some sort of arcane symbol is carved into his chest. A foul rotten smell clings to the room.
As you look upon the grisly scene, you notice a bloody axe wedge into the floor next to what is left of Katrine's body. The handle is covered in bloody finger prints. The axe head smells foul, even worse than the smell lingering in the air. Chunks of rotten meat cling to the axe head.
You scan about the room, bloody footprints and amongst the sawdust are everywhere. The struggle took place around eight hours ago judging by the dried blood. Interestingly one of the sets of tracks was made by a barefoot human. Both Katrine and Harker (the man chained on the wall) are wearing shoes.
The man (Harker, a mill worker) hanging on the wall is in a gruesome state.The rune carved into his indeed that of a Sihedron Rune. The same as found in the Catacombs, Chopper's Isle, The Dagger, and Thistletop.
Matthias sketches the rune, as well as the placement of the body and any blood splatters. He turns back to the others and speaks in a low voice. "That rune, carved on the man's chest, is the Sihedron. The same as in the ruins beneath Whistletop and the same as in Chopper's lair. I fear that this rune is somehow the thread that ties these events together."
The blood drains from Bel'Tanis' face, "Me?! No! Of- of course not!" He raises his hands in innocence, worry and panic rioting across his face.
"There's flesh on this axe that's far too rotten to belong to these people," Scoria states calmly, masking her disgust and horror under stoic professionalism. "Scholar - can you determine if flesh belongs to the undead?" She asks - the only reason she could think of the axe head having such rotten meat on it was if it had been used first as a defensive weapon before being wrenched away from its holder.
Upon seeing the rune carved into the male victim, Midori pales, dropping the note and swaying slightly.
She turns and heads toward the door, but manages to regain control.
"That - that's how - they said - my father - cut up, marked like that..."
Matthias will study the flesh on the axe, and if possible use disrupt undead cantrip to see if the flesh reacts to the positive energy.
Hemlock puts his hand on your shoulder in a reassuring manner, "No I wasn't trying to imply you are involved, I just know you were an item with the sister for a while, and though you might have heard something about Katrine and Ibor, who are now dead."
Although the smell doesn't affect you negatively it still smells foul.
You are repulsed by the way Ivor was slain, in the same manner that your father was.
Your beam of positive energy eradicates the dead necrotic flesh hanging on the axe.
Scoria looks at the vanished flesh, before giving Matthias a level stare. "Next time, please do not destroy all the evidence," She tells him, heading out to report the findings to Thaddeus. She catches the tail end of what Hemlock has to say to Bel'Tanis and steps up to him, speaking in a flat tone.
"Bel'Tanis was never an item with that woman. I would meet those responsible for these lies and beat honesty into their heads personally for that," She states with perhaps a touch more venom than was usual for the stonemason, whirling around to speak to Thaddeus.
"They were killed by something undead. I know not the specifics, nor will we be able to determine such, as the scholar destroyed all of the samples of their flesh left determining if it did belong to the unliving, as opposed to simply examining them." She states. "It is something foul smelling at least, as little as that aids us."
Thaddeus looks curiously at Scoria for a moment, deep in thought, "Foul-smelling undead you say. I imagine they all smell in a sense, except maybe skeletons having nothing to rot, but smell more than usual to leave evidence of their presence." He mostly is talking aloud to think vice actually asking a question.
After the crowd has mostly cleared he returns to the scene itself. He is looking more for the personal clues, vice the physical evidence. "So, who are these two that they were killed by an undead in the sawmill? Do we have reason to believe that it was a targeted killing, or was it merely a murder of opportunity? Lastly, who was the farmer killed, and is there any connection between the three?" Again, asked mostly to jog his thinking, but he will look expectantly to anyone that may have an answer.
Bel'Tanis looks aghast at the sheriff's suggestion. Incredulously he blurts, "I was what?!" before his shoulders slump. He seems about to protest further when Scoria comes to his defense, for which he offers her a grateful nod. Eyes downcast, the young aasimar runs his hands back through his thick, black hair as he tries to reign his emotions in and refocus. After a moment, he looks up and after a deep breath adds, "Maybe we should investigate the farmer's.. err, well- farm?"
hehe
aghast
snicker
undead puns ftw!
Matthias looks sheepish when Scoria chastises him. "Sorry. Sometimes the investigative process is damaging." When Thaddeus brings up the farm murders, he listens attentively.
You are fairly sure that the stench can only be that of a Ghoul or Ghast.
Hemlock looks at Scoria in her defense of Bel'Tanis, "Apologies to both of you, I had just heard rumors...somebody thought they were a couple."
"Interestingly the other murders only took place at a farm, the murder victims were actually Sczarni, identified as Vito Mortwell, Lener Hask and Gedwin Tabe. We figured it was a pay back killing. Another man survived the attack Grayst Sevilla, but he was stark raving mad. I had him locked up in Habe's Sanatorium. The murders were quite gruesome, like this one, I figured the poor man's mind just unraveled in the face of such depravity."
You know the three men worked for Notick's Uncle, and Vito was always railing on Notick for being to soft.
"Hmph. We shall speak to the survivor and try to see the truth through his mad ramblings", Khrondak says without taking his eyes off the ground. "An undead, then, and a barefoot one at that, if that is any importance. It has seemingly struck twice, leaving a mark we have seen only too often as of recent; I would not be surprised if the forces that fueled the Chopper's knife are linked to the creature under Thistletop or to this undead murderer," he theorizes.
Khrondak steps out of the crime scene and tries to pick up the barefoot creature's tracks out of the building, hoping to get somewhere.
Thaddeus nods, and adds what he's gathered "The stink of the undead this strong could belong to either a ghoul or ghast, both more powerful than the average zombie or skeleton, and capable of genuine thought. To create or control one, there would have to be a caster of notable power. Unless, for some reason it was merely acting on a vengeance possessed before undeath took it in regards to the Sczarni men. The question, though, is how does this tie to the letter left for Midori?"
He begins to pace, thinking aloud, "We have the Sihedron, an attack on local Sczarni, a letter to Midori, and possibly a caster powerful enough to control a ghoul or ghast. I think Brother Iron-Forged's mention of checking on the dagger and it's current guardian would be the first and wisest course of action. From there we can try to work on the connection that ties them all together."
Midori nods. "It's such an odd combination of threads and clues. And what did the -creature- or it's controller have against these two? I don't understand the connection between these and the earlier killings you mentioned, sheriff. We should talk to the survivor, if possible."
Midori then sighs, looking first at the sheriff, then at the rest of the group. "Um...and, we should check to see if there is a connection to the seemingly similar -deaths- in Magnimar, though I don't understand how..."
She looks at the note and shudders. "I hope it's just a coincidence. I...this note...if...did the same..."
She shakes her head and tries to pull herself together. "Did this 'Lordship' kill my father and the others as well? Why?"
The last word is a wail of grief and shock.
She looks around some more, trying to take in any clues.
And not spotting any.
Scoria looks at Midori, before coming to her side and speaking to her softly. "I am unaware of the details of your father's death, but if this Lordship is obsessed with you, it appears to be a recent occurrence. Do you know of anyone who has taken an interest in you in the past few months since you've come to this town? Perhaps someone with ties to nobility if they're calling themselves a lord. But that's too broad an assumption to make right now. We should look into the other murder at the farm for evidence of undead - if so, then these murders are most certainly linked."
You track the barefoot creature all the way back to the river bank. It appears the creature emerged from the river to enter the mill.
Bel'Tanis comes up beside Midori and gently puts his hand on her far shoulder. He doesn't fight as she pulls away to begin looking for clues, but a look of obvious concern clouds his face.
"I'd like to look at that farm now, if we're all done here."
Scoria glances between Midori and Bel'Tanis, pressing her lips together thinly and turning away. "I agree, we should head to the farm immediately. Let's go," She urges, giving the aasimar's arm a short tug.
Thaddeus puts his hands up haltingly, "Let us not be too hasty. We should look at this from a logical perspective. The sanatorium is most likely the furthest from us, and with the man locked up there, he is not likely leaving soon. We should check on the dagger first and foremost. If it is connected, it is right here in town. If it is corruptive, the good Father may be in danger or in a worst case scenario, involved." A look of concern wears on his face.
"We should expand our investigation outward. Start with the dagger, question those at the garrison held for just such. Then to the farm and sanatorium outside the city."
Bel'Tanis frowns as he turns to Thaddeus. "I disagree. Nualia got away because we gave her a chance to. I don't want to give whatever or whoever did this the same opportunity. I think we should check the farm before whatever trail might be there goes cold."
Thaddeus holds up a finger as a point of contention, "That is exactly my point, but your frame of reference is reversed. The farm happened prior to these murders, as did the man at the sanatorium. Meaning that the killer moved from outside the city to within. They are closer here than the farm or facility. Following the leads here can put us closer than to it than haring off after the older ones. Not to mention, if the dagger is involved, there is greater risk here with Father Zantus. I may regretfully add, that if he were corrupted by it's dark influence, he could potentially be powerful enough to have have control over a more dangerous undead like the ghoul or ghast."
"I share Thaddeus' concerns about Father Zanthus. However, even if the priest is involved, he is likely to keep the semblance of normalcy for now, as opposed to running away—or perhaps he has already done so, and we would only be wasting our time. On the other hand, as time passes, it becomes harder tot track, especially if the weather shifts. The farm is a good idea." Khrondak looks to the sky, observing the movement of the clouds.
Thaddeus looks at Khrondak curiously, "Semblance of normalcy? Yet there have been five murders, in but a few days. If we leave town without securing the dagger, we risk more deaths locally. Securing the dagger and questioning those at the prison allows us time to make for the farm soon after. Yet if we go to the farm first, we may return too late for the safety of the community. I do not understand why the farm is such a focus for so many of you? We have people we can question, here and at the sanatorium, yet all the farm contains is where the attack took place where we can only hope clues have been left."
"Are you sure the dagger is involved in this? It seems rude to just approach Father Zantus assuming he's responsible. It's as bad as claiming Bel'Tanis is involved due to rumors of his supposed involvement with the sister of the victim. But, perhaps there's an easier way. Is there enough of -her- face left to use 'Speak With Dead'? Can we not just ask her what happened?"
The Mill is on the Turandarok River which empties into the Sandpoint Harbor once it passes the mill.
Habe's Sanitorium is about four miles to the south of Sandpoint.
Your senses tell you the weather will remain cold and a light rain through out the day.
***
Hemlock addresses the group, "Actually you may not need to go the farm, the bodies are in the basement of the garrison."
Bel'Tanis shrugs, obviously getting frustrated by the back and forth nature of the discussion. "Fine. Back to town then." He turns and begins heading back to town, an ill feeling churning in his gut.
Scoria sighs, looking at Thaddeus. "Let us split, then. Bel'Tanis and I will see about the dagger. The rest can see about the bodies brought to the garrison. We will meet you there," She states, heading off with the aasimar.
Thaddeus is pleased, but disheartened, by the agreement given its apparant reluctant acceptance. He doesn't get why the others are so opposed to accomplishing the nearest task first, before haring off, when they all have the potential to be equally vital to the job at hand. He nods when Scoria decides to take Bel'Tanis with her to see Father Zanthus. He places a hnad on Bel'tanis' shoulder as he makes to leave and speaks softly to him, "Please, dear friend, I would appreciate if you took the lead in speaking to the good Father. Scoria, although rife with her own merits, can be both blunt and abrasive in her manner of speech. We are merely making inquiries as to the state of the dagger, and any information of what it takes to control ghouls or ghasts, but it needs to not feel as if there are accusations."
With that said, he turns his attentions back to the others, "I apologize for my apparant obstinance, but I do feel any clues we may find with either the suspects or the bodies will give us more clues to look for when investigating the scene. Correct me if I'm wrong, Matthias, but is not understanding the people involved in such crimes highly productive in solving them or finding what clues they would leave behind? Let us away."
Turning to Khrondak, he offers, "If you would like, you could probably continue to try and follow the trail you found, as I know it is a time-intensive task, tracking and all. If you left obvious markers for us, we could likely catch up to you before you got too far away. Thereby giving you a headstart to the path you wanted to follow. All the same, I hasten to warn you, that both ghouls or ghasts are very dangerous foes, and not ones to be trifled with alone. I fear for your safety if you were to take on this task outside of Sandpoint by yourself."
Matthias grimaces. "Must we dilute our strength through division? In town, I understand, but sending members off into the wilderness, even in pairs may be a rash action. Let us investigate the bodies and then the survivor; following a known slaughterer of men into the dark which seems to be its natural home seems ill-informed at best." Having said his piece, Matthias heads to the garrison to examine the bodies.
Bel'Tanis presses on for the cathedral, offering Thaddeus a curt nod in response to his whispered instruction. After he and Scoria have gotten a fair distance away he confides, "This is a waste of time, Scoria. There weren't any ghouls or ghasts or whatever else kind of undead with the last rash of Chopper killings. Father Zantus and the dagger aren't involved and while we waste time talking to them, whoever's doing this could get away again!"
Frustration is plain in his voice, and it's easy to see by his adding 'again' to his last complaint that Nualia still weighs heavily on his mind.
"I agree," Scoria tells him, "Not about them getting away, but that the dagger is not of consequence in this case. The sergeant is simply not not making any assumptions about the matter and attempting to eliminate possibilities. He is in charge of this investigation - we are simply his assistants."
She's quiet for a moment, before adding as she squeezes his hand gently, "And you must stop tormenting yourself over things that are out of your control. You cannot hold yourself with any responsibility for the things that people you've never met have done or might do."
Khrondak dismisses Thaddeus' suggestion. "The creature's tracks disappear at the river, from whence it emerged to do its foul deed. I doubt I would be able to follow it any further than that. Maybe we will have better luck questioning the townsfolk, like you wish to. Shall we go now?", the Shoanti asks calmly, seemingly undisturbed by the horrible scene around them.
He accepts the squeeze of his hand and then withdraws it, falling back into the comfortable habit of massaging his left palm with his thumb. "I can if my having been there would have stopped it," Bel'Tanis offers sullenly. "I know I can't be everywhere at once, but I could be at the farm right now instead of wasting time asking questions about a dagger."
You arrive in the basement of of the garrison a short while later, an assistant shows you to the storage room that hold the bodies of the three gangsters. The assistant pulls back the sheets to revel three men each with the seven sided rune carved into their chests. All of them appear quite dead.
You arrive back at the Sandpoint Cathedral and find the good father in his study, doing some illumination on a what looks to be a newly bound book.
He looks up at you as you enter the room, "Children what is it I can do for you?"