Chapter 3.2 - Return to the Golden Grain Inn

Myrtha keeps highly alert to any movement or sound from the far side of the cave, or from above her.

At Aanbo's urging, Ember steps back into the tunnel, rapier at the ready, with the light of Arya's torch on one side, and the deep subterranean darkness around the corner in the other. Arya stands at the entrance looking shocked at another glimpse of death, torch loose in her hand. Morton stands near Arya, just inside the room, ready to jump in either direction as the need arises.

Aanbo moves to examine the body, bare feet (?) crunching on bone fragments. Myrtha keeps close to the dwarf, and Chase holds his torch up so that the fighter can see the remains as well as the monk. The remains of a person lies here, and it takes little examination to figure out that the body has been half-eaten, pieces torn off by teeth and claw. It's impossible to tell what type of person it was, but the three Dungeon Busters are relieved to agree that the torn clothing does not resemble anything that Joseph wore. Judging by the smell and the state of the body, whoever it was died sometime within the past week.As the others stand guard or inspect the body, Theran moves about, examining the rest of the chamber and its contents. There are several intact humanoid bones that haven't been broken yet, though they have been picked clean by whatever hungry occupant lives here. He recognizes some animal bones: probably bovine or equine ribs. There is a single boot. There is back part of a small book that was torn in half at some point in the past. There are deep claw marks on the wooden beams that support the ceiling, and gouges in the earthen walls. There are pieces of skulls scattered about; Theran estimates that, if he were to try to piece them together, he'd find that there are at least a dozen distinct heads. It's all very nauseating.

@runekyndig -

Elsewhere, Lyrel had set out for Orlane from Hochoch along Cecily's Road a bit more than half a day behind the rest of the Dungeon Busters group. When night fell, she'd only been in the gloom of the Dim Forest for a few hours, and she made camp off of the Road well short of the abandoned Jarl family homestead.

Unshalevagoruvimue appears to Lyrel again in her dreams, and this time she doesn't think that she imagines the satisfaction in the fey's demeanor when it urges her to seek out the wizard of Orlane.

She feels well-rested and confident after an undisturbed night spent in the calm darkness, reading by the light of the campfire until she couldn't keep her eyes open and had to lay down for a deep trance conversation with the fey creature. Having not been disturbed by belligerent owlbears or the vindictive dead all night long, in the morning Lyrel feels a spring in her step, confident that the journey will continue to be this easy. Strapping her fateful sword at her hip, Lyrel sets out at a vigorous pace on Cecily's Road on this second day in the Dim Forest, but she finds herself enjoying cataloguing the various plant and animal species she observes, stopping periodically to note salient features or sketch depictions of a leaf's unusual vascular pattern or a bird's novel plumage. So when she makes camp for that second night, she hasn't managed to gain much ground on the Dungeon Busters ahead of her, but she wasn't really expecting to; her primary goal remains finding Ramne, the wizard of Orlane. Besides, why would she think it would take less than three days to reach her destination? Everything worthwhile always seems to be three days away!

That night's meditation is unusual for Lyrel. As soon as she sets aside her pen as the fire burns low, she looks up and apparently is already in the trance, because Unshalevagoruvimue is sitting across the fire from her, a twinkle in its eye and a crooked smile on its lips. Like most fey, it is mutable and ever changing, but the eyes and mouth always hold a similar expression; this time it has taken the appearance of a young, extremely handsome half-elf boy (maybe as young as 50).

She looks down and when she looks up it is morning and she is awake. She gathers up her ink, books, sword, and pack and sets out again, following the directions that she received from Larissa on how to cross the Realstream River. Larissa's information is a bit out of date, and Lyrel has to backtrack a bit. When she finally crosses, it is downstream of where the party is crossing back at around the same time. Lyrel progresses into Ramne's Grove, where she finds the Wizard of Orlane digging in his vegetable garden, singing to himself. It is mid-morning, and she has just missed the party by a couple of hours.

Examining the body, Aanbo observes a number of additional details:
- the body is so mangled it's impossible to tell how it was killed, but whatever has been eating it has been doing it over time. Some of the wounds/tears are much more recent than others, which he can tell from the condition of the flesh and the amount of ants present in each.
- the bites that were taken from the flesh are that of a hominid with teeth: a dwarf, an ape, a human, an elf...something like that, rather than another type of carnivore with teeth (canine, feline, ursine, reptile, etc) or carnivore without teeth (avian, amphibian, other reptile, invertebrate, etc).
- the remains of the clothes indicate a local, rather than a traveler: rather than the dust of the road, there are traces of white powder on the clothes, which includes part of a torn apron. The powder appears to be flour, so this was the body of a baker in Orlane, perhaps?

@runekyndig Ramne is interested to hear about the fey visions. He tells Lyrel that the help he needs is with putting a stop to the evil forces that are perverting people to wickedness in Orlane. Once they turn wicked, the people have been pretending to be good, but at night they abduct people to who-knows-where and convert the abductees to their cause...or eliminate them (he's not sure about this last part, but the fact is that some people have disappeared and never returned). He's been working with two groups: the Mayor and a few other trustworthy residents, and the Dungeon Busters who have come from Hochoch. The Dungeon Busters came through, escaped getting abducted, and had a big fight with some of Ramne's neighbors, fellow Orlane residents who were turned evil. Several people were killed, and the priestess from the temple, Misha Devi, officiated at a public funeral where Constable Grover - a good man turned evil - roused the residents into a frenzy of anti-outsider fervor. They've enacted a citizens watch that patrols the streets of the village, looking for outsiders to accuse of crimes. Meanwhile, the abductions have continued; just a few minutes before Lyrel arrived, Ramne was visited by Dorian, one of two elven strangers that came to Orlane a couple of weeks ago. Dorian explained that he and his companion Llywillan were hired by the Mayor to investigate the change in the populace, but that their house was raided last night, and the two elves barely escaped capture.

"You don't know the streets here, and it would attract attention if I changed my routine to show you around myself. Your best chance of safety is to join the other Dungeon Busters, but they left a few hours ago. My familiar has been scouting the village for me; I can have her alert us when she finds them again. I know that their plan was to come back to the Golden Grain Inn (where they were nearly captured more than a week ago) at night to explore some secret tunnels under the Inn."