Chapter 3.5: The Temple of Merikka

Not being equipped with a mirror, Arya is completely unaware of the condition of her eyes. So when Morton makes his veiled reference to her condition, it goes over her tilted head. Instead, she nods and responds to Ferranzo: "I'll wait." She looks at the gold statues; the closest one to her is a cluster of three root vegetables, painstakingly rendered in intricate detail. Though the work is exquisite, because it's all gold, it's impossible to tell exactly what kind of food it is: beets? radishes? turnips? Arya muses: "What do you think these guys want? Yes, they're abducting people to kill or convert them, but what is it all for?" She points to the root statue: "They're not doing it for money; they've left all these gold statues alone, and we saw how they were stashing the belongings of the people they took, rather than spending it. If they were against Merikka, you'd think they would deface the Temple, but everything here seems untouched. Do they just want more people? What for? I don't understand it."

As Myrtha suggests the party regroup, Chase opens the door and peers inside. There is no light within, so he is only able to see part of the room, and that dimly. But it appears to be a kitchen: ovens line the far wall, cabinets the wall on his right. A small table stands in the middle of the room. The other half of the room is in darkness.

Aanbo joins him, and together the monk and ranger grab the bloody corpses of the monks and carry them into the kitchen. Aanbo can see what Chase cannot: the rest of the kitchen is much like the part Chase saw: more cupboards line the walls. It's a bigger kitchen than seems necessary for the few people they've met so far, but then they might host larger events for the community on holy days: a harvest festival or something similar. There are no windows, and as long as no parishioners show up and notice the blood, there's no reason to think anyone would stumble across them there. It doesn't seem like anyone else is on this floor of the building...unless they're behind that other door Aanbo saw to the north.


"Gaining followers, huh?" Arya muses in response to Ferranzo, "I suppose that makes sense." At Morton's request, she waits with ill-disguised impatience.

Lyrel discovers that the bottles contain "Orlanian Special Wine." Not being from the area and only having been in the village of Orlane for less than a day, she doesn't know whether that's something sinister or something prestigious. But she's smart, and figures that it is legitimately a special vintage; one wouldn't advertise a drugged wine by writing it on the label.

She takes a few moment and performs a search so thorough it would have done Eugenios proud: checking for false bottoms in the furniture, rifling through the cushions on the chairs, checking for trap doors under the carpet...however, she finds nothing else hidden or out of the ordinary.

Then she follows the voices and joins Myrtha, Eugenios, Ember, Chase, and Aanbo in the dining room, where they are looking through the door at the bound acolyte struggling on the floor of the sanctuary. Across the sanctuary, they can see Morton and Ferranzo in the open door to the hall of statues.

Chase has suggested binding the hog-tied captive to something solid; the party looks around for likely candidates that aren't the tree trunks or huge jade statue in the sanctuary....if anyone were to enter the sanctuary (someone coming from elsewhere in the Temple, since no one can come in from outside with the entrance doors already barred), they'd see the bound-and-gagged acolyte immediately. The ovens in the kitchen, perhaps? They're not fixed to the floor, but they are solid and heavy enough that one person wouldn't be able to move them.

After an extended period of indecision, the party agrees to drag the bound-and-gagged acolyte into the kitchen and tie him to the leg of one of the cast-iron ovens. Having done this (and resolved to not explore the one unopened door leading off of the dining room), the bulk of the party joins Morton, Ferranzo, and Arya in the hall of statues. The golden sculptures of different harvest items gleam and glitter in their alcoves. To the north, the passage turns west. To the south, the passage ends in a door.

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Aanbo (19/27)
Arya (5/19)
Chase (12/17)
Ember (7/12)
Eugenios (8/8)
Ferranzo (8/8)
Lyrel (2/13) Mage armor
Morton (8/15)
Myrtha (23/30)