She shrugs, "Well, it was worth a shot. I guess we don't have a choice but to break it down, if we can."
"We can look around to see if there's a key, hidden anywhere. Barring that we can try breaking it down. There's also the possibility that one of the bodies in the clerical robes outside might have a key on them." Aiden points out.
Thinking about what her beloved says, she nods. Even though she didn't want to dig through rubble to find the body that might have what they need, she knew it would be better to find a key than go busting up stuff in a temple. Maybe they would get lucky and find the key hidden somewhere in the room so they wouldn't have to search the bodies.
"Okay, that sounds like a good idea. I'd rather not go busting up stuff in Pharasma's temple anyways. Her presence still seems to be very much here, and I really don't want to upset her. So, let's all have a good look around here, and if we don't find it here, then we'll go search the bodies for it. Does that sound alright to everyone? Whatever you move while looking, make sure to put back the way you found it."
Emma then starts taking her time to search the room, being very meticulous and methodical in her endeavors. She makes sure to put back anything she moves in search of the key to the door. Even though she does not worship Pharasma, Emma offers up a prayer of condolences for what happened to her temple as well as her Priests and other followers. She prays for their safe passage to the other side as she searches.
Rosie takes her time searching around, like Emma does.
Clyde shrugs and looks around as well.
Searching nearly every nook and cranny of the altar room ultimately yields nothing. If there is a key, it's not here.
"How many of those things would we have to fight in hopes of finding the key?" Rosie asks.
"Well, the gods will have to forgive me for this," Clyde says, setting his shoulder against the door. "But the more time we spend down here, the more time that carriage has to get away or hurt more people..."
With a single thrust, the door flies opens to reveal a small hallway beyond with three more doors.
Rosie peers inside. "Maybe these were the living quarters?"
Emma shrugs, "Maybe....can we just take a quick look? I was really hoping to find something that would help us figure out how to destroy that carriage...anything at all." Emma sighs and goes to the first door to check and see if it was open.
"It's worth looking." Aiden says, leading the way down the hall and stopping at the first door, to try it.
You open the door to a small bedroom. On the bed, sits a skeleton of a person holding a prayer book. Judging by the size, they were probably younger than Rosie upon their passing. The rest of the room is quite barren, save for a small desk and a simple tub for washing.
Emma shakes her head, sad at seeing so much loss. Not seeing anything of use, she walks down to the next door and tries to see if it's open, "If we don't find anything in these next two rooms, we'll just head back out. I'm sorry if this turns out to be a waste of time. I was just hoping that with it being a temple of Pharasma, that there would be some information about how to deal with undead....anything really that would help us figure out how to deal with this carriage business."
The next door leads to a modest office. A large oak table dominates the center of the room, while a bed is tucked away in a corner. A vial of ink and quill sit upon an open book on the desk along with various, yellowing sheets of paper. A bookcase stands behind the desk, filled with thick, dusty tomes.
"Maybe there's something here that can help." She says hopefully before searching the room in depth.
"My biggest concern is what it was that killed them. Looking at the positions of some of the bodies, whatever it was, it was sudden." Aiden points out.
Emma looks confused for a moment, "I thought that guy said it was the earthquake, and collapse of the temple that caused all this? I mean, I can inspect the body to try and determine what happened, but I was just more focused on trying to find answers to help us with our problems to think about it at the time." She says, while trying to find something of use.
Emma notices a large brass ring sitting on top of the open book on the desk. A section of broken chain is secured to a hole in the ring. The halfling's eyes fall to the words written on the last pages of the book.
'There is a general unease in the town since that black carriage had passed through town. Several people suffered from a strange malady...their bodies were warm and yet hale, but there was no spark of life within them. The goddess has remained silent on this matter. I fear that this may be a sign of darker times to come.'
'Heresy! Someone has desecrated the church with symbols of the foul goddess, Urgathoa. It took several hours to get the walls clean...Screams from the town...'
'The dead have risen! I swear it was the work of whomever desecrated the church...or it may have even been that carriage. The afflicted people finally awoke after a month, their eyes blank and lifeless. They began to attack the other townsfolk. We brought the survivors here and the earth opened up, spewing forth animated bones and wretched abominations of flesh and sinew. The doors have been barricaded, but the pounding will not cease...'
'Brother Maynard and I have kept the people fed with our magic, but madness begins to drift among the townsfolk like a foul fog in this imprisonment of sorts. If a paladin was among us, perhaps we could fight our way out, but we are mostly aged or infirm. The door begins to crack...our final moments may come soon.'
'The earth had loosened with the emptying of the graves and now the ground swallows our church like a starving beggar. In the grips of madness, a couple of townsfolk unbarred the doors and let the undead in the church. In the chaos, I think I saw Urgathoa...but perhaps my mind has begun to leave me. Maynard placed his holy symbol at the altar to repel the undead and we took refuge in these rooms with the young acolyte, Simon.'
'The church has fallen a long ways. There is no way out. I have entrusted Maynard with the sacred censer lest it fall into evil's hands. He is attempting to dig a tunnel to the surface from his quarters. Simon has passed in the midst of his prayers...perhaps some mercy from our Lady of Graves. I must put these abominations to rest as well as the souls of the fallen townsfolk...it may cost me my life.'
'Maynard's tunnel is complete. I bid my brother in faith farewell, though he knew it not. I told him to await me in Furrow's Glen, but I shall not make it. I must do my duty as the head priest of Pharasma.'
Emma's mouth falls open in shock, "Oh...my....Goddess....it's it's the High Priests journal. The carriage came through here before, and the same thing happened...but, it said someone or something desecrated the church with symbols of Urgathoa and the earth opened up and skeletons arose....they were besieged by the undead, and...and there's something else. The ones that were afflicted by the carriage....after a month...they awoke with blank lifeless eyes and started attacking the other townsfolk. We have a little less than a month to find this thing and figure out how to stop it, destroy it, or whatever we have to do to save everyone from the same fate as those in this town." She says, sounding slightly shaken up.
Aiden gently takes the journal from Emma, quickly reading through it as well, before letting out a long deep breath. "So we have a few weeks at best to find this carriage and undo whatever it is that did this. Sounds like there's definitely some unholy power behind this though."
Emma nods, "Have we looked through everything down here? If so, we need to get moving. I think we should go back and talk to the spiritual leader if these people, and let him know what we found, and find out the next town along this road, and get heading toward it. We're running out of time." She says, her voice strained as she tries to hold it together.
"There's the third door," Rosie says, after reading the journal herself. "I suppose there would be a tunnel there to get back to the surface."
"Think we ought to take that?" Clyde says, pointing at the brass ring.
"I think so, if for no other reason than as part of the record of what happened here." Aiden replies.
Emma nods, "I think we should definitely take the journal with us, and try using the tunnel to go back up. Let's go check this last room, Rosie is probably right about the tunnel being in there. Are we ready to go? I wanna check out this Furrow Glen place he was talking about. I wonder if it was the next town in the Carriages path."
Rosie knows the next town along the road is Glenshire and there isn't a Furrow's Glen anywhere nearby.
Emma thinks back and tries to recall if she's ever heard of such a place.
"I've never heard of any place called Furrow's Glen," Rosie says. "The next town is Glenshire. Maybe we can ask there...if things haven't gone wrong there too."
Clyde pockets the brass ring and heads back out to the hall.
After saying a brief prayer over the bones, Emma follows Clyde out into the hall.
Looking back at Rosie she says, "Oh, maybe it was a place that was around during their time. I guess we'll find out more when we get to the next town. Are we ready to check out this last room, the tunnel, and get out of here?" She asks, getting some comfort from running her fingers through Shadow's fur.
The door to the last room is unlocked. There is nothing but broken stone and wood splinters on the floor. The aforementioned tunnel, sloping upwards, is the only thing of note here. The tunnel seems like it was hastily dug, while Emma can walk almost normally, the rest of the group needs to crawl to proceed.
"After all that, I suppose dirty clothes are the least of our worries," Rosie says. "Maybe you should lead the way, Miss Emma?"
Emma nods, "Sure, and if we need to, I can probably get all of us a change of clothes if we need them. I don't like being dirty, it just makes me feel uncomfortable." She says, as she starts to lead the way through the tunnel.
Twenty minutes that felt like an eternity later, you emerge in the wilderness some ways beyond the church and town.
Clyde looks utterly lost. "Well, the town's over there, but how do we get back to it?"
Emma looks around before going to Aiden, "Can you tell which way we need to go to get back to the town love?"
Thinking that her husband must be distracted by thinking about everything they had found out so far, Emma tugs on Aiden's sleeve, "Honey? Do you think you can get us back to the town?"
Crawling out of the hole, Aiden looks around for a moment before closing his eyes, not realizing Emma was trying to get his attention. Slowly turning his head, he suddenly stops in one particular direction. Taking a deep breath, he opens his eyes, orienting himself as he looks down at his wife with a smile.
While the area has been overgrown for some time, Aiden can easily find a path leading back to Millsworth. A twenty minute trudge through the darkening forest and you find yourselves at the outskirts of the town again.
Clyde groans. "I think we ought to spend the night here. I don't think I could do any more without some food and sleep."
Emma nods, "Yeah, and a bath."
"Agreed. We should spend the night here and continue on in the morning." Aiden replies, as the town comes into sight.
Emma takes her love's hand as they get closer to the town.