"You're all here." Kythan states as you file in the open area of Sandpoint's Old Light.
The light house is virtually unaffected by the tsunami of days past being situated high upon the northern rocks of town. from where you are standing, the lighthouse provides a clear view of the destruction of the trsunami on the small town as well as that of a small speck on the western horizon which is Devil's Elbow.
"The falling meteor and the tsunami was no accident." The eladrin begins.
"While you were runninga fter Nualia, my own companions and I were following another lead." Kythan passes on a journal to Gryffin who is nearest to him.
"All of this is done by the drow." Kythan pauses waiting for your reaction. When confusion is evident in your faces he continues.
"Yes, the drows are real. They have simply gone in hiding before but now they are resurfacing and you can be assured that they are up to no good. I have come to you because we need your help to find out what they are up to and if possible to stop them."
Kythan: The Meet
Arao: Season 2 prologue
Dear Abigail-senpai,
Greetings! I hope your convalescence is going as scheduled. Or at least I pray that you are currently in the same good spirits as I am right now. It has been only a short time since I left the nurturing confines of the Academy and got posted here in the village of Sandpoint, but already this place has grown on me.
You were indeed correct when you said that the outside world was a fascinating place. I believe you have read my earlier mails to you about the adventures I have experienced. I have somewhat developed my divine powers, and I thank the Father Sun everyday for the good fortune of having met comrades who share the same resolution as I do to defend the Light against the darkness of evil.
Indeed, it is very heartening to witness the resolve of the multitude of people who call Sandpoint their home. From the halfling baker across the street, to the dwarven smith down the road, to the half-elf minstrel at the village square, to the human farmer at the outskirts of town, and even to the neutral goblins in the next village -- their steadfast determination to protect those they hold dear, to preserve the peace, and to fight the fear of the encroaching darkness -- these beings truly deserve a rightful place under the Sun.
I also believe you have heard about my request to extend my stay here. What I have said above contributed to my decision to seek an extension. I fear the past encounters with the Cultists are still unresolved and they still pose a threat to the village. Even as we speak, strange occurences have been happening throughout the village. A freak hailstorm, a water spout so close to shore, cracks forming suddenly on the earthen ground, and many other extraordinary incidents. Albeit minor in nature, the frequency with which they occur has become alarming.
I feel as though there is an ill wind approaching the village. This sense of ominous foreboding I cannot shake from my thoughts. I wish that I will be wrong in my apprehension. I wish that these halycon days of peace would last longer. But I also know that it is far better to be prudent than to ignore these sinister signs. So I will stay here and help protect the village against any danger it might face.
Hopefully next time I write, it would be of happier news. Till then please rest well and may the light of Pelor shine on you always.
Your kouhai and friend,
Arao
DM: Star of Ill Omens
As crowds of people gather along the Cathedral and the Town Hall, a flash in the night sky attracts their attention. A streak of light arcs down from the sky, a falling star traveling a westward course. Yet the star does not burn out—indeed, the streak lengthens and soon seems almost as if it were hurtling directly at Sandpoint. As the streaming light draws near, panic grips the streets, but a moment later the falling star arcs over the town and out to sea, trailing behind it a smoky scar and the sound of thunder.
The star streaks out to the west, reflected by the sea below, and then a moment later it strikes the island of Devil’s Elbow out to sea. A strange false dawn seems to rise to the west as a brilliant blast of light fills the horizon. Several moments later, a tremendous explosion rolls through Sandpoint as a powerful earth tremor strikes. Several members of the crowds are knocked prone by the earthquake.
The quake isn’t enough to destroy buildings, but it is enough to knock some shingles from roofs, shake objects off of shelves, or crack the Sandpoint glass windows in several of the town’s structures. As the tremor continues, an angry orange ball of fire rises into the sky on the horizon over Devil’s Elbow, spreading in an ominous mushroom-shaped cloud.
By this time, much of Sandpoint has gathered at the wharves and western points of town for a better view of the distant holocaust. A few minutes later, the water of sea suddenly retreats into a bizarre and sudden low tide, revealing several sunken wrecks and flopping fish and more than a few stranded sharks.
Jarek shouts a warning as he realizes that this is an indication of an approaching tsunami from the impact. Several of the townsfolk run for their homes or take to the streets towards the opposite eastern side of town. Fortunately, the shape of Sandpoint’s harbor minimizes the impact of the tsunami, but still, only a couple of minutes later, the water comes rushing back in toward Sandpoint, a 7-foot-high wall of churning froth that slams into the beach with incredible power.
Several of the townsfolk were unlucky to get struck by the wave, and were carried inland by the wave’s power. A few moments later, these folks were pulled out into the harbor as the water recedes. Several smaller tsunamis strike Sandpoint in the surrounding minutes, but these are not severe enough to do much more damage.
In the end, the tsunami deals more damage to Sandpoint than the tremor. Dozens of ships are damaged, a few are sunk, but more are left stranded as far inland as Raven Street. Many of Sandpoint’s piers are ruined or damaged, and several of the smaller buildings along the beach are destroyed or partially collapse including that of the Brodert’s place. Over the next several hours, the Mayor and Guards of Sandpoint mobilize like before, working together to put out fires, save citizens who have been swept out into the harbor, or kill angry and disoriented reefclaws, sharks, bunyips, and other dangerous sea creatures that have suddenly become stranded in the town streets.
guillaume: strange days at sandpoint
"father guillaume! father!"
"wha .. ?!" have i really awaken or am i still dreaming. i seem to rememeber vivid details of it. some happy memory of my childhood spent with my cunning cousins back home or was it about something else, some dark looming memory that ebbed gradually until nothing of it remained except the knowledge that i was dreaming. the steady pounding and murmurs of several voices behind my bedroom door continued.
i stood up from the bed and secured the knot to my robes before opening it. i squinted from the barrage of light that came in.
it was several of the peasants each holding out a lamp. familiar faces notably regulars to the service. they flooded the opening with their anxious faces. noone spoke. but instead, they all looked to me expectantly as if i knew the answers to everything.
i had enough to sense to hold out a finger to hush them to silence.
"not here" i whispered with tiny hint of a groan at the end. "several of the acolytes sleep here as well. i do not want to DISRUPT their night's rest" i pointed to the dark hall way to the right where indeed we could hear from behind a door at the far end, several of the acolytes snoring. guilt was something common amongst the clergy as a means to manipulate the laity into doing something we wanted. personally, i never liked the practice. it seemed underhanded. but tonight i felt compelled.
i lead them out to the grand marble stairs outside the temple of corellon. i looked up to see the bright moon high up in the clear sky, the shadow mysteriously absent since early that afternoon.
"it must be midnight" i broke the silence of our little field trip. it must be very serious. these peasants would not bother me at this hour if it was not. i thought. the peasants stood quietly unsure if they were now permitted to talk.
"how can i help you?" becoming a little impatient
and in an instant i knew that my night's rest would have to wait and that these peasants for all their naivete had a torrent of strange happenings around town.
we require the council of the town elders for this - was all i could think of.
Rhonna: Strange Days in Sandpoint
Rhonna was having tea with her Aunt Mathel in the porch of the Merrid Mansion when they were disturbed by a numerous loud squawking coming from the beach. The young maiden stood up and searched for the source of the noise and noticed a flock of sea gulls suddenly take to the air and begin flying in a growing cacophonous spiral. The noise continues to grow for several minutes as large flocks wheel above the town in ever-gathering numbers.
Rhonna and her aunt, together with their neighbors stepped out of their houses to watch the spectacle. Eventually the seagulls’ erratic flight brings them into proximity to the Sandpoint lighthouse, where they crash into it violently by the hundreds before the few survivors continue their ragged flight out to sea.
"This is an ill omen." The young warlock whispered to herself.
For the next 2 days, crushed and broken bird carcasses wash up on the beaches around Sandpoint and cluster as flotsam beneath the port creating a horrible stench over the western portions of the town.
Arao: Strange Days in Sandpoint
Arao was in the streets of surrounded by a crowd of children beagging him to once more tell them stories about Magnimar and dragons. The dragonborn was in a middle of a story when a loud rattling and clatter is heard that proves to be tiny falling objects clattering on the roofs and streets of the city from a clear sky. At first the dragonborn assumed it to be hail, but examination reveals it to be tiny pieces of porous black rock— looking almost volcanic in nature but defying all identification.
The initial storm of pebbles does no noticeable damage, but after 2 minutes, the rocks increase in size and begin cracking shingles, ripping awnings, and pelting anyone who remains outside including the dragonborn and the children with him.
“Run for cover kids!” Arao shouted as he pointed towards the nearest building which happens to be Sandpoint Theater.
It was lucky that the paladin was in his armor and he used his body to shield the slower kids from the falling onslaught.
The rain lasts for just a little over a minute but when all is said and done, there are several dozen casualties and hundreds of gold pieces of damage to property and ships.
The stones themselves remain for a few more minutes, covering the ground before they suddenly evaporate into nothingness. Attempts to classify the material before it fades meet with failure—the stones feel like granite, but float in water and are strangely cold to the touch.
Gryffin: Strange Days in Sandpoint
"Does your spells normally do that?" Volioker asks as a purple mist fills up the living room.
"Ummm...no. It normally just summons a spectral floating hand lifts the object into the air and moves it where you wish." Gryffin states.
"There shouldn't have been any purple mist." The eladrin states as he further inspects the mists. "This is all very interesting."
The dwarf then moves towards and opens the nearest window. "Yes, it might be but it's filling up the house and I'm afraid it might stain the furniture!"
"I don't think its harmful dad." Gryffin stats as he casts a magic ball of light which is once more accompanied by the appearance of the same purple mist.
"If you're gonna keep doing that you might as well do it outside!" Volioker scolds his adopted son.
Gryffin absentmindedly moves out of the cottage still casting catnips and observing the strange mists.
He eventually notices that the mists remains around his for a few minutes before rising up towards the Blot.
"Hmmm... Brodert would need to hear about this." Gryffin states as he rubs his chin while staring up at Brodert's Shadow.
Lloyd: Strange Days in Sandpoint
"We ready?" Lloyd asks as he tightens the ropes holding his bags unto his mount. "I'd like to be on the road before the sun gets too high."
"I just need to have Das to check on the horse's shoes." Orik answered as the fighter looked on at the male human checked their mount's shoes.
Das ignores the two young men and continues to hammer the horseshoe while ranting about inpatient customers. The smith suddenly stops and gives a grunt.
"What's wrong?" Orik asks.
"The darn hammer and shoe's stuck to the anvil and refuses to move!" Das grunts as he pulls once more on the unyielding implement. The former mercenary gives it a try and likewise fails to budge it.
Lloyd hears the commotion and enters the small shop, ignoring the insistent barking of the large red mastiffs that the smith keeps. The former guardsman stops at his track as he spots numerous metal objects in the smithy begin to rise of its own - nails, hammers, chisels, even pieces of unfinished armor and weapons - which start to fly off and attach themselves to the bigger metal objects in the room and ricocheting along the way.
"Orik! Das! Get of the there!" Lloyd manages to shout.
The three occupants start to back out. Das manages to make it towards the door where Lloyd is. Orik, however, takes cover under a wooden table as the flying objects start to gain speed.
After a minute all is suddenly still once more and only the roaring flame of the smith could be heard.
"What was that all about?" Das states as he looks at the destruction within his shop and starts to pick up all his stuff while mutter curses along the way.
Kythan: Excavation
"Get her!" Kythan shouted to his companions as soon as they enter the cavern. The cavern itself appears to have been recently enlarged at the east end, where a massive, curving stone carving protrudes from the floor, wall, and ceiling. It is covered in runes that appear strangely familiar, and it appears that some of them have been chipped away.
A table nearby holds several stone working tools and a thin book.
It's not these however that captures the attention of the swordmage and his companions. As soon as they step thru the chamber, a pair of dretch guardians gibber and howl to alert the other occupant of the room - a female eladrin with purple skin and silver white hair - who takes cover behind her table. The two dretches attack and while the dark skinned eladrin fire her hand crossbow at them.
The fight turns bad for the dretches as Kythan quickly slashes thru them with his burning blade.
The female eladrin creates darkness and uses the cover provided to flee. The magical slippers she’s wearing allowing her to move along the wall and reach the shaft leading up. She continues to fire crossbow bolts at Kythan as she retreats up the shaft. She manages to catch the swordmage's shoulder with a minor wound.
Kythan annoyingly pulls out the small crossbow bolt and runs after her. He however struggles after a few steps and falls on the floor.
His companion is beside him in a few seconds and is checking the swordmage's wound.
"Poison." The companion whispers and busies himself with his bag.
"No!" Kythan gasps. "Go after her. We cannot let her escape."
The swordmage's vision then turns blurry and the world vanishes before his eyes.
Nualia: Nualia, Round 01
Nualia gives a smirk as she feels the effects of the priest’s spell try to make its way thru her defenses. The spell however fails to take hold.
She then moves; too fast for anyone in the room to really track her. One moment she’s at the opposite side of the other room, the next she’s within the same room as the party and beside Rhonna, and then she’s at the other extreme side of the room.
Rhonna lets out a scream as she realizes, she has been slashed by Nualia’s wicked looking bastard sword. A deep cut on her midsection is now oozing blood and some dark liquid.
Nualia’s eyes then turn black and gazes at the eladrin priest and Guillaume is forced back by her intense gaze.
The acolyte then exhales a cloud of black substance into the cluster of heroes. Those hit by the substance start to scream as dark goo painfully tries to seep out of their eyes, noses and mouths.
DM: Nualia, Part 2
“I have been following your progress, or at least your early progress. Tsuto was concerned that the five of you might be brave, or foolish enough to try and take the battle to Thistletop. I see Father Guillaume is with you. Did he tell you his part in my downfall?” she asks.
Seeing the flicker of confusion in all your faces, she barks a single, cold laugh.
“Ha! My great horror. My great shame! The infant that filled my gut. He is the one that birthed it. Did he tell you that? No, of course not. He birthed it. My son, my beautiful son. And when they saw that Thazidun had gifted me with a dog headed prince, he and Zantus took it and….” she stammers, as if lost for words. Lloyd pulls up beside Gryffin, casting the young wizard a look, as if to question whether it was wise to wait. Behind Arao, Rhonna, Orik and Guy moved up.
“Guillaume knew. Zanthus knew. They knew what my 'father' was doing to me. They could have helped. They chose not. That is why Thazidun came to me. Nobody else would help, and when I found the old shrine beneath the town, I spoke with her. I had fled there, like so many times before, to escape the drunken attentions of the man who claimed he was my father. He hated me. He hated my heavenly blood. He was a man who had lost his god. No spirits spoke to him. He was an empty shell. HE KILLED MY MOTHER, and then he took his rage out on me.” She is screaming now, almost incoherent. It is as if her anger has turned almost to fear, her voice a shuddering, hacking mess.
“The town priests knew about all of this. They deserve to die! Sandpoint deserves to die.” And whispering now… “For what they did to me. For how long they let this happen to me. For taking my boy from me.”
She sobs once, before looking up again, her beautiful eyes and silver hair hinting at her heaven-touched heritage.
“So kill me!” she whispers. “I have nothing to live.”
DM: Nualia
For a second the light flickers brightly and you catch sight of a young, stunningly beautiful silver haired woman, tall, strong, with heavy scarring across her exposed belly. Her left arm looks wrong somehow.
Most of the party recognizes her for who she is – Nualia. Though something is very different about her.
“Don’t bother calling your gods dear father and paladin. The light hasn't touched here is ages untold. Can't you feel it? Can't you feel the power here?”
Her voice is calm, measured. You sense no fear in here.
“And your weak gods are dead to me. I spent a lifetime with my father trying to teach me the pathetic forgiveness of your mild gods. I am being reborn here. He, however, will spend an eternity in Tharizdun’s grasp. Perhaps you would like to join him?”
DM: Disable Device Check
Guy manages to cast a minor spell of healing on Gryffin. Once patched up, the eladrin takes another looks at the archway and the bars locking their way. He moves around the statues and kneels at the foot of one of them.
“Alright kid,” Arao states. “We need you to try and disable it somehow.”
Gryffin raises an eyebrow, as if to question the possibility of this. Seeing that the dragonborn was serious, Gryffin rises again, moving with a sigh to the scene of his near death. His blood stains all too clear on the slick floor of the trigger tile.
Gryffin spends a few moments inspecting the trap. “We need something to re-trigger the trap!” he tells Arao.
*
Looking around, you decide on using a part of the fallen statues to trigger the pressure plate.
Lloyd and Orik haul a huge chunk of the fallen statue back towards the trap. The half-elf notices the mercenary being a bit distant.
“You okay?” The half-elf asked from the opposite end of the statue.
“Why do you care?” The mercenary gruffly asked back. Orik continued to look towards the trap effectively avoiding to Lloyd’s gaze.
“You better have Guy take a look at that shoulder wound too.” Lloyd stated ignoring the question.
“We can’t afford to lose any one anymore.” The half-elf continued. “No one…”
*
With a nod from Gryffin they release the statue piece and the bars start to once more fall. The glaives follow suit not long after. The wizard fires off a scorching blast destroying one of the glaives. This throws the whole mechanism off effectively jamming both the bars and the remaining glaive half way down.
Gryffin smiles as he finally works the teaching of both his dads in a single task. The young wizard looks back to see his companions giving him a look of disbelief.
“What?! It is disabled, right?”
Arao shakes his head once and leads the rest of the party onwards.
DM: Feysteps
Gryffin shrieks in pain as the glaive rises, pulling itself free from the meat of his shoulder. He turns to see Lloyd straining at the bars, the muscles bulging, and the veins in his face etched in purple.
The wizard, however, calmly clamps a hand over his shoulder wound and simply stares at his companion. One second he was trapped within the bars, the next moment he feysteps and is standing amidst them.
The glaives stop, lazily arching back into their upright position. Something clacks, like heavy stone on heavy stone. There is a sound of steel on steel, as if the trap resets itself.
Lloyd grips his friend in an embrace.
“I thought we were going to lose you!” The young warrior states while the rest crowd round Gryffin.
Overlooked at the stairs, Orik resentfully looks at affectionate exchange between the two friends.
You are back where you started, with two of your numbers once more wounded.
Rhonna becomes aware, for a second, of something watching you thru the bars and from the far end of the corridor. It flits back into the shadows, appearing to disappear into the northern-most room, and is gone.
DM: The Slashing Cage Trap
The party edges forward. Everyone can sense now that they are deep in the heart of evil. This place has a fetid stench and unearthly chill to it. The young eladrin and half-elf edges forward towards the doors at the end of the corridor, intent in putting an end to this foray into this ancient evil complex.
Orik suddenly shouts a warning. “Wait! They’ve reactiva –“
He doesn’t finish his sentence as an arrow hits him on his left shoulder which sends him flying back towards the steps. From the far side of the corridor, a lone figure runs up northwards and into a room.
Something then clicks. Gryffin looks down at his feet. In a fraction of a second he realizes that he has activated something. He is upon the dust-free area of ground, between the two statues.
He sees it play out before him in the tiny fractions of time that only afterwards one can piece together to create a sequence of events. Two heavy iron portcullis structures comes crashing down, about to separate him from Lloyd and his companions. Then the two statues start moving, their heavy glaives ready to slice him to pieces.
*
Lloyd, hearing the click, seeing the hesitating flinch of Gryffin, realizes that the young wizard isn't going to make it clear. The half-elf watches the two heavy portcullis gates start to crash down. Being the closest to Gryffin, he lunges forward, trying to stop the western gate from connecting.
He barges forward, throws out his hands, and braces against the portcullis.
He feels it hit against the palms of his hands, but the sheer weight and speed of it just smack his hands out of the way.
The two heavy gates crash into place with an almighty boom, shaking the ground and sending faint motes of dust up into the air.
Lloyd curses in the elven tongue. Gryffin turns to face his companions, a look of fear on his face. He is trapped.
And then the glaives falls.
DM: Heading Down
After taking care of the corpses of both Lyrie and Tsuto, the party decides to head down. Orik leads them further north into what he says to be Lyrie’s workshop. Everything in the room is in disarray. Nothing interesting catches your attention though. The mercenary then lead you deeper within the shop, at the back, a set of steps that lead deeper into Thistletop.
The new steps change about a third of the way down the stone spiral staircase, being of much older, much more worn stone. The walls around you are cracked here and there, with mildew and other fungal growths lining the cracks. You must be getting close to the sea level here, although you can hear nothing through the thick stone walls.
The stairs open out into a small room that is lit by a single lantern that has been left upon the floor. The lantern casts sufficient light to make the small room quite clear. A stone door just ahead of the steps hangs slightly ajar, the detailed carvings that once covered its surface defaced by chisel marks and hammer blows to the extent that only a few remnants of images (mostly of gemstones and crowns) remain. The floor here is slanted downwards to the west at a noticeable angle.
Air quality seems to be surprisingly good, and the temperature is warmer than you would have expected for listing stone dungeon so close to the sea.
Lloyd moves forward and peers through the crack between the door and the wall. The room beyond is also lit by a solitary lantern placed on the floor. Otherwise it is empty.
Moving in you find that the chamber has two pillars to support the ceiling. In many places the floor and ceiling are caked in ancient grime and sot. Alcoves in he north and south wall contain partially damaged statues of a man in robes clutching a book and a glaive. The entire room, just like the last one, is tilted down to the west, and whatever ancient upheaval caused the complex to tilt knocked the statues from their bases so that they now lean against the southern walls of their alcoves. On the east wall is a single door.
*
Lloyd and Gryffin hears nothing at the door, except the faintest echoes of perhaps distant movement, or even the sea itself striking the deep stone walls of this strange rock. It is hard to tell, and filters through the rock like a dull thrum.
The eladrin opens the door quietly to reveal a short hallway that rises in a slope to the east. Five feet from the western door, the floor is polished and shiny, unlike the dusty floor elsewhere. A pair of stone statues depicting stern men wielding iron glaives stand in alcoves north and south of this section of the hallway. At the eastern end stand two stone doors, their faces carved with strange runes. Between the doors is a third alcove in which a partially collapsed statue sits. The top half of the statue is missing, leaving behind a ragged stump of a torso.
Lloyd: The Chapel, Aftermath
Lloyd's at a loss on what to do with Tsuto. The rogue has continued to prove himself to be a threat to the well being of the town, and yet, he is still a member of Sandpoint - albeit a black sheep and an outsider.
The warrior looked around at his companions. He’s starting to understand how it is to be an outcast from the people you grow up with. There are some situations that occur in one’s life that may force that person to change - sometimes for the better; sometimes for the worse.
Some people act on that need. Tsuto acted on what he felt he needed to do. To most people what he did was an unforgivable heinous act. And yet for him, for the rogue, Justice has been served and he is at peace with himself.
But there are some things that people do not act upon - things that they resist in order to satisfy the wants and beliefs of the many.
Lloyd looks around once more until his eyes fall upon their mercenary companion. The half-elf wonders if Tsuto is actually the better man.
Who was Lloyd to judge?
Gryffin: The Chapel, Aftermath
Gryffin waved a hand over Lyrie's corpse. The ash and blood staining her
body and belongings immediately faded to nothingness.
"It's the least I can do for a fellow caster." He thought. His initial
fear of her powers now turned to pity.
He bent down straightened her limbs and arranged her hands over her chest.
Gryffin looked up to see Rhonna looking at him quizically.
"I respect her, she worked her magic well but I won't let her knowledge go
to waste..." Gryffin said and with another wave of his hand, the the blood
faded from her belongings and Gryffin gathered them into his pack.
+++
His attention now went to his companions who were binding Tsuto.
"I think we should gag him as well..."
DM: The Chapel, Aftermath
Tsuto’s down. Lyrie’s dead. The hounds are dead.
Surveying the room, the stench of evil is strong. These hounds, while weak version soft their true type, were no things of this world. The odor of ash and burnt bone is in the air, almost certainly from the offerings on the shrine.
The body of Lyrie lies upon the stone floor, with a small pool of blood gathered under her head, her body scorched by fir pretty badly. Tsuto has a gaping wound on his chest but the half-elf’s breathing reveals that he’s still alive albeit barely.
*
Rhonna and Gryffin move over to the prostate woman. The blood around her has grown slick and sticky. Gryffin bends down to examine her, pressing a finger to her neck and lowering his ear to her mouth.
Rhonna kneels beside him, making sure to avoid the blood. “Well, is she dead?” she asks, lacking perhaps a little in subtlety.
Gryffin hears nothing. Feels nothing. Her skin has turned pallid. Her head, where Lloyd had hit her earlier, has opened into quite a wicked wound. It appears that she may have bled to death.
“Dead.” Is his response. He sits there for a few seconds, making sure. It is definite. The wound and the burns did not kill her, but the blood loss did.
*
Gryffin then proceed to check the fallen wizard’s belongings. He finds a leather bound spellbook, a thick carved wooden wand with a red stone at the top, a potion, five scrolls, a dagger, a blood soaked but very high quality cloak of dark grey with runes stitched into it in black, a small bag filled with what appears to be personal clippings and 3 platinum pieces.
The eladrin wizard picks up the items he has identified, as well as those he hasn’t, and tucking them into his belt.
Lloyd and Orik proceed to tie up their half-elf captive with some rope they brought with them. Both fighters worked silently as they made sure that Tsuto’s limbs were securely bound. Orik however occasionally looked up to Lloyd as if waiting for the latter to recognize his presence there.
*
Feeling uncomfortable, Guy interposes himself between the two and starts to perform healing to prevent Tsuto from dying.
“Arao wants him alive for questioning.” The eladrin explains.
Lloyd takes the opportunity to leave the two and examine the rest of the chapel.
*
“It stinks of evil here.” Arao offers, feeling the palpable sense of dread that permeates from the altar. The body atop the altar has been badly burned, with ashes, frazzled clumps of once-hair, leathery patches of flesh, and desiccated, blackened bones.
“I wonder who the burnt offering was. Obviously it worked enough to grant this place the stench of evil and the presence of those two hounds.”
Guy moves beside him. “I can feel it too. The evil we are feeling isn’t only coming from the chapel; it’s also coming from somewhere else, isn’t it? You can almost touch it.”