Gregoth pauses, points at the stairs. “Feet. Bare. Going up.” He looks at the people traveling with him, then follows the tracks to the upper floor of the manor.
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There are two bedrooms on the second floor: a guest room that was empty during the attacks and the master bedroom. The guest room is unremarkable save for the northeast corner, where the kitchen fire ate through the floor and walls. Between the flames, smoke, and exposure to a week of rain, all the furnishings in the room are completely ruined.
The door leading into the master bedroom has been broken open, but the room is in decent shape, save for the blood and gore on the floor. The bed is large and comfortable. There is a chest in the room, which is locked with a simple lock.
The chest contains a bag filled with the town’s treasure (120 gp in assorted coins), the deeds to several of the buildings, two well labeled lesser healing potions, a very nice shortsword, and a hat.
Andagard slides the chest out past the gore and blood covering the floor. "You all think its still safe to stay here?" He drops the chest down hard. "We need to get this open as well."
"I'm not good at it, but I could try to pick the lock."
Ernie slings the auto-doc on his back and pulls out a set of tiny tools. He kneels down and carefully inserts two of the thin metal probes into the lock.
"Anybody else want to give it a try?"
Ernie persists at picking the lock until someone else steps in.
Realizing that he forgot to replace the lockpicks he lost on his last mission, Ernie struggles to jury rig something out of the repair kit and whatever debris can be found lying around. When they inevitably break he spending even more time repairing them.
Gregoth paces around the room as Bernie works. “No bodies,” he states slowly. “But many deaths. Too much blood. Where are they?” As the minutes drag on, he adds staring out the doorway into the hall to his patrol route.
"Sorry, this is taking too long. Maybe we can just smash it open?"
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There is nothing more to find upstairs, so you go back downstairs.
The dining room looks almost peaceful—everything is in place and the table is set with finery. It almost looks normal, except for the spatters of blood on the floor next to the table. The blood trails to the kitchen, which is in complete disarray. One corner of the kitchen is scorched and completely collapsed. Plenty of kitchen tools remain, along with enough food to feed one person for a week. The trail of blood in the kitchen indicates that a body was dragged through the debris, but no corpse can be found.
The two-story library on the western side of the building features a massive window looking out toward the manor’s titular spring. Before, this room played host to the mayor’s many parties. It’s now dark, and a coppery tang suffuses the air. Blood stains streak toward the door leading to the hall. On the floor is a bloodstained low-grade silver dagger, a shattered glass goblet, and half‑empty bottle of red wine.
Knight Night gently creeps forward, sword at the ready, heading to the dagger. He keeps looking around for any perceived threat with each and every little step. Slowly he reaches for the dagger.
Andagard puts a finger to his mouth as he points to the bloodstain. "Let's follow what dragged it off."
Ernie picks up the holy symbol and seeing what it is, he tosses to one of the two thaumaturges, a look of disgust on his face. "Just some superstitious junk. Maybe one of you want it?" he says as he makes a mocking gesture of prayer.
After retrieving the dagger and being on edge, the holy symbol being thrown causes the little bear to jump a bit. He quickly tries to catch it, or rather net it into his arms, and inspects it closer.
"Looks like whoever was taken was taken dwn the holes." Andagard assumes. "Let's finish up with this Manor and head over to Fiorna's Spring." He taps his staff on the stairs to try and draw the attention of anything in the building as he heads to the second floor.
Andagard motions to the only room not open. "Let's see if any servants made it out of this massacre alive." He heads into the servant's quarters.
Knight Night respectfully sets the holy symbol down on the table, then rushes up to his allies and joins in the search of the servant's quarters.
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The servants’ quarters, in a separate building near the manor, were empty at the time of the attacks and have been untouched since. There are four small sleeping chambers, each containing a bed with a chest underneath, and a communal dining room with a cooking hearth. Basic supplies can also be found inside, including 2 days’ worth of food and fresh water, clean clothes, and simple tools.
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You figure out that this is actually a dawnlight, a powerful weapon of the Dawnflower against the undead!
"I think we have searcher the Manor, lets head over to Fiorna's Spring." Andagard suggests as he begins walking.
Ernie will drag the chest out of the house and leave it near the barricaded store; just in case he happens to find a lock pick or a key for the chest later.
"If we can't open this box maybe we can just chop it open later."
Andagard picks up the doll and places it gingerly in his pack. "Just in case they are still alive." He makes a wide net and circles the area taking a decent look around.
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Andagard doesn't find anything else in the immediate area.
Burbling up from underground, this massive spring sits high above Fiorna’s Faith and runs down the hillside, through the village, and then into the woods to the south. The body of a human man bobs in the center of the pool, prevented from floating downstream by his cloak, which is snagged on a rock.
The water appears to be tainted by zombie rot. Drinking it would subject you to this vileness.
The body received wounds before death (severe bruising around the neck)
and after (several arrow wounds and a massive slash to the abdomen)
Andagard leans in and pulls the body to shore using his staff. "What happened to them." He looks on grimly at the town as he flips the body over.
Ernie brings his medical expertise to bear on the dead body.
"Okay, looks like its time for an autopsy."
"Hmmm...not sure about the cause of death, but I can tell you that this water is contaminated. Don't wash in in and definitely don't even think about drinking it."
“Dead,” Gregoth says shortly. One hand points to the corpse’s neck. “Bruises. Before.” The hand shifts to the corpse’s torso. “After. Arrows. Cut. A threat after dying.”
"Hmmm...Gregoth, that sounds like he was killed and then killed again as a zombie. Kind of like that cow. We might be dealing with some a death cult that's killing people and bringing them back as undead." Ernie smacks one meaty fist into the other palm. "If there's one thing I hate more than anything else, its bloody death cultists."
Andagard looks back. "I saw the Pick 'n' Pint back that way. Maybe we can find something edible there and break for a moment. Rest these legs."
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The party heads to the Pick and Pint. As you make your way there, stopping to check out the other homes along the way, you find one house where behind one of the open doors, a small barricade has been smashed in. Though made from broken furniture and crates tied down with ropes and nailed in place, it clearly didn’t hold.
You think you could fix the barrier and door. It would take an hour.
Easily the largest structure in Fiorna’s Faith, this squat, single‑story inn features a modest stable attached to the back. Unfortunately, where a warm light and raucous laughter might have once poured through the many bright windows, the building now stands dark and empty.
A crude mix of tables, crates, and barrels form a crude barricade across the main entrance, though it’s clear this didn’t hold. The barricade’s center has collapsed, and the ground beneath it is marked by bloodstains, gore, and other signs of violence. Similarly, many of the windows have been boarded up, though more than half have been broken.
A wooden sign creaks in the wind. It hangs from the front of the building from one of its two hooks. The sign is adorned with a mining pick, a massive stein, and the words “The Pick and Pint.”
You enter into the tap room, which is divided up into a small stage, a place for tables, and the bar. The entire area is in shambles. Spare tables and chairs barricade the windows, detritus is strewn about everywhere, and rust colored blood speckles every surface. A large sinkhole has opened up under the building’s southeastern wall, which also breached the back wall of the inn, into the yard.
A large number of people living in here for several days. One table bares three relatively new notches. Piles of dirty clothes and rags litter the ground, as well as dishes and animal bones (including those of a few rats) that have been picked clean. A crude charcoal drawing on a wall depicts many people, all pressed tightly together, with a wall around them and menacing squiggles outside. There is evidence that bodies were dragged to the sinkhole and tossed inside.
”This is such a gruesome scene to behold.” Knight Night looks over the room and finds every heinous detail of the last days of whoever may have lasted here, recounting everything he can see to his comrades.
A large number of people living in here for several days. One table bares three relatively new notches. Piles of dirty clothes and rags litter the ground, as well as dishes and animal bones, including some rat bones, that have been picked clean. A crude charcoal drawing on a wall depicts many people, all pressed tightly together, with a wall around them and menacing squiggles outside.
There is evidence that bodies were dragged to the sinkhole and tossed inside. The bear looks at the hole and draws his sword again, looking for any sign of undead threats.
Ernie suggests splitting up as they check out the two houses on this side of the river on the south side of town; then going to the big burnt out building on the southern edge. (Erastril's table)
Andagard nods, "I'll take this one and you take that one." He heads over to the house keeping an eye out for anymore sinkholes.