Swamped

It's barely even bleached from its time in the sea!

"Much more colorful than it should be," she mutters. "The sea washes out most of the color from this kind of shell. This looks like it's never been in the ocean, but if that were true, how could it grow?"

"Well, it's supposed to be holy," Arlene says. "Maybe Nual created it on land, or stopped it from losing its color."

The priest seems skeptical.

"Nual prefers to let nature run its course. Although, I'm not getting any sense of what he's feeling right now. I suppose he's not upset by its presence in his temple, at the very least." She paces back and forth. "I believe it best if you hold onto that for now. But once your business with the Golem is taken care of, you should leave it with us."

"Certainly," you reply, putting it in your pouch. "So, let's get ready, then. I was thinking we could borrow some appropriate robes so they'd let us get close. If that's all right with you?"

"That would be easiest, yes. And I'll give you proof of my approval, in case there's any trouble. Follow me, please."

She starts walking away, and you follow her.

"You're going to have to take that mask off, Arlene. It'll just lead to awkward questions."

"But those are the best kinds of questions!" Arlene declares.

"Not when you're trying to investigate something on a holy ship," you sigh.

"Oh, yes," the priest says, as she leads you to a closet door. "There's something important you should know about the ship, as well."

Don't mention the weather to any of the crew.

"I don't know if you plan on making small talk, but if you do, don't bring up the weather," she says, handing you a robe.

"Oh, I could have told her that," Arlene says, taking another robe. She starts putting it on. "Sailors are always pretty sensitive about that. Most have been through nasty storms."

"It's not just the storms for the Golem. Their route takes them through heavy fog for months at a time. And the furthest reaches of it have fierce snows. Best to just stay off the subject entirely."

You and Arelene put your robes on. Of course, Arlene insists on keeping the mask on for as long as she can get away with it.

"That shouldn't be too hard to remember," you say. "What about terms of address? Greetings and such? Do we just call their boss Captain or is there some other title?"

"They aren't that big on formalities. Many of their crew used to be typical sailors, after all, and they haven't changed all that much."

Well. You're pretty sure you can handle sailors.

She hands you a small slip of paper - the proof to show if there's any trouble. You hope there won't be.

"Nual be with you," she says calmly.

"With you as well," you say, bowing your head. You turn to leave.

"Wait, before we go," Arlene interjects. "Where'd you learn to aim a cannon so well?"

"The Lansor navy takes its training regimen very seriously," she replies. "You think my aim's good, you should see what I can do with a length of rope."

With that, the two of you head out and make your way to the harbor.

But on the way, you think you catch a glimpse of someone following you.

Whatever it is, it's not human. Is it Setrus's pet?

You watch a little more carefully. You spot a shadow on the rooftop, which slips away moments after. But whatever it was, you think you caught a glimpse of a large, furry tail. Too big to be a grebling's.

Some sort of animal, then. Perhaps following you on orders from a trainer? That's a little worrying, but you can probably get some of the Golem's priests to look into it once you get there.

You continue to the harbor. It doesn't take you long to find the dock reserved for the Golem... but you don't see anyone else there.

Which is worrying. You'd expected there to be actual priests here. And you can see that the ship itself is still some distance away. About ten minutes out, you'd guess. Close enough it surprises you that there's no sign of any preparations.

"I don't have to take my mask off yet, do I?" Arlene asks.

"I suppose not, but only because we've got other things to worry about." You put the breather mask on, just in case. "Why is there nobody here yet? You've worked at these docks, maybe you have some idea what's wrong."

"Just doing inventory, but yeah, spent a lot of time standing by waiting for ships to come in." She looks around. "Hmm, it looks like somebody was here not long ago, though. They've gotten a ramp out for unloading, and it looks like they've been clearing space to keep cargo."

"So maybe something happened here? Perhaps they were attacked, or something scared them off?" You glance over to the ship, just to confirm it's getting closer rather than leaving. "Do you see anything to suggest that? Or anything out of place?"

"Hmm." Arlene walks over to a spot that looks completely ordinary to you, and glances down. "Well, there might be something here."

She lifts up a rainguard, and opens it up.

"If it's not actually raining, they usually keep these to the side. This one's out in the open, and there hasn't been so much as a raindrop all night."

"And for that matter, the priest said not to bring up weather to the ship's crew," you muse. "You'd probably want the rainguards out of the way just in case they upset someone. So why is this one out here?"

"If I were to hazard a guess, I would say it is because Brother Herbert is always excessively worried about rain," replies a voice. You turn towards it and see a priest, and a red-haired woman. "And he brings a rainguard with him wherever he goes, no matter how unlikely the weather is to change."

"Who are you?" you ask.

"Oh, it's that weird priest," Arlene says. You refrain from commenting on how the priest, however weird he may be, isn't the one who's been wearing an animal mask for several hours. "Don't know who his friend is, though."

"We have a mutual acquaintance," the woman says. "Goes by the name Crow. He says you have a map, which I'd like to have a look at."

Must be the woman the wizard was talking about. You can't help but notice she closely resembles the two women you found unmoving in the warehouse. And a woman you recall seeing at Patterson's a few times, for that matter.

If that's her, then you really could use her help with Grandmother's map. But you've also got a more immediate mystery on your hands, and maybe you ought to deal with that first. Then again, your only lead is an umbrella... but maybe the priest knows something.

Well. Whatever you're going to do, best to decide quickly and get to it.

SpoilerShow

Ran through a random word generator and grabbed the first thing that caught my interest, which was "umbrella".

SpoilerShow

Fliped a coin between "Ask about the map" and "Question Mantis", the map won.

"Here it is." You pull out the map and hold it up. "I don't plan on parting with it, mind, so you'll have to tell me what you can see from here."

The red-haired woman looks at it intensely.

"I see a second map. Not that I know what it means." She quickly pulls out a notepad and sketches something, then holds it up. "Perhaps you have more context?"

"I don't really know this town." You glance at Arlene and the priest. "But you both live here, right? Does it look like anything to either of you?"

"Yes, actually," the priest says. "Most of the marks are at the locations of churches. But that doesn't seem to be the full pattern - there are a few locations I'm not familiar with, and Nual's main temple doesn't seem to be on here."

"Hmm, maybe it'll make more sense if we figure out what the other locations are," Arlene muses. She walks over to the red-haired woman and takes a closer look. "Oh! I know what that one is!"

SpoilerShow

Random word generator to the rescue again. Just kept going until I got some kind of place. This time: "cemetery".

"It's a cemetery," she says. "Specifically, it's for people who don't want to worship any particular god. Not a lot of graves there, since Nual's such a big presence in this town."

"Ah!" the priest declares. "And the churches have their own cemeteries, but the temple does not. Perhaps that is what we are looking at - gravesites. Or even individual graves, such as for members of a specific family."

The red-haired woman looks concerned.

"I don't want to go grave-robbing if I can help it."

"I doubt that's it," you say. "The map would have to be way more precise if we were going to be finding specific gravestones. And it's magic, so it could be that precise if that's what Grandmother wanted."

You look at the regular map again.

"Maybe we're meant to follow the normal map, and the magic one tells us we're looking for a grave in that area? I'm told the regular map seems to be pointing to the festival grounds..."

"I know of no grave near there," the priest says. "But, you may be correct that the maps are meant to be taken together somehow. I suggest giving that some thought while we investigate what has happened to my fellow priests."

You suppose that's a riddle that has more immediate clues.

"All right. But all we've found so far is a rainguard. You're a priest, have you noticed anything in particular?"

Usually incense would be burning in anticipation of the Golem's arrival. Don't smell any at the moment. Let's check the dock worker's shed to see if the censers are still in storage and were never set up or if on the other hand they've been dismantled or stolen.

SpoilerShow

I'm back! Sorry to have missed a few updates.

"Well. I've only seen one landing ceremony, but it was quite memorable. They prepared incense and began burning it an hour before the expected arrival time." He glances around. "Since none of the materials for the ceremony are present, not even laying around unattended like Brother Herbert's rainguard, the first question I have is whether they were left in storage or taken from the scene entirely."

Arlene glances at a shed nearby.

"That's probably where they'd keep the stuff," she says.

The priest walks over, and opens it.

"Not locked," he mutters.

You can see a long row of censers inside, as well as a number of boxes.

"So, hang on," you say, half to yourself. "They got a ramp out, and it looks like they were preparing space for cargo. But they didn't get the landing ceremony ready." You pace for a bit before turning to the priest. "Do you remember if they got the dock area ready before they started burning the incense? Maybe we can figure out when they disappeared, at least."

"Ah, yes. The ceremony is only supposed to start on the command of a senior priest. Other preparations are not of a sacred nature, so they would be able to start on them immediately."

"So then the disappearance would have been at least an hour before the ship was expected," you mutter. "Unless the senior priest never showed up, I suppose."

The red-haired woman is looking impatient.

"I'm very sorry that your fellow priests have gone missing, but to be blunt, I don't think it has anything in particular to do with me. I've got quite a few things to take care of, and the map is the main reason I came here. I've gotten a good look at it, so I think it's best if I go now and..."

She pauses.

"Wait. I just realized something. I may know what happened to the priests."

Does anybody else... Smell something decaying?

Instead of explaining further, she sniffs at the air. You take your breather mask off, but you don't smell anything.

"Think you've lost me there," you say. "Can't smell a thing." You put the mask back on just in case.

"Decay," she says. "It's faint. And I think it might need ether sense to detect it at all."

"I think there's some part of the explanation you're leaving out."

"You've heard of necromancy? Animating the dead?" she asks.

"Of course I have. Also heard that all the wizards say it's impossible. Even the creepy ones who actually tried it."

"Only if you need them to do complex things," the woman explains. "In principle, making a dead body move is no harder than making a rock move - the hard part is making it move like a living body. Just getting a corpse that, say, floats around, that's simple. A little more ether and you can make it wave its arms around. It won't be able to obey any commands, only do what you tell it to directly, and ether will flow out of it much faster than with a rock. But you can get a crude corpse puppet if you're really determined."

"And you believe such a creature may have been present?" the priest asks. "And that it somehow captured the priests?"

"Or maybe they killed the priests and moved the corpses," Arlene suggests. She's trying to be helpful, but it's just disturbing.

"No, if they did that, there wouldn't be time for the bodies to decay," the woman says. She's a little annoyed. "I'd be smelling fresher blood. There's using it to scare people off, of course, but that doesn't seem like it would be as effective with priests. But maybe you get a corpse of, say, a big sea creature with sticky tentacles. Just let it flail around and catch people."

"I feel like there'd be more signs of struggle if that were it," you mutter. But something's nagging at you.

She smells decay, suspects a magically puppeted corpse is involved. And Grandmother's map is apparently pointing to cemeteries. There's a connection there and you're not entirely sure it isn't a coincidence.

Then a thought hits you.

"Lures," you say. "Show them the bodies of loved ones. Get them to follow. Like the stories of the Ship of the Dead."

The woman frowns.

"It's technically possible to pull that off, or something similar. Combine it with some illusions to weaken their resolve, and they're less likely to resist a charm spell. Then you can lead them wherever you'd like. But you'd need to know the priests very well. And who's to say they all have someone that close they miss?"

"That is easier than it sounds at first," the priest says. "There is someone very important to all the priests of Nual in this town."

The old mother superior who passed away last year. She united the different sects, which have grown more divided since her passing.

"Our last high priestess," the priest says. "She kept the church together during trying times. She was already sick when I joined, so I did not have the good fortune to meet her myself. But the other priests told me many stories about her, and the church has grown more divided without her presence. Priests from the main temple get in arguments with priests from the smaller churches all the time."

"So if she comes from beyond the grave with a divine message, if you make a good enough show of it you can talk the priests into going anywhere," the woman muses. "Seems a good working theory as to how it was done - now we just need to work out where they've gone."

"Hold it," you interject. "You were just about to leave a minute ago. You're not just sticking around because you had an idea - you think it's relevant to what you're doing. Care to share why?"

"It's simple. I'm trying to track down a wizard who has a habit of doing this sort of creepy thing. It's actually my main goal here. So finding these priests is very likely to bring me closer to my quarry."

That was a more straightforward answer than you expected.

"Well, there's one thing I don't get," Arlene says, twirling the rainguard. "If this belongs to Brother Herbert, and he's always worried it might rain, why'd he leave it behind if they were following a dead high priestess? Does he think she'd keep the rain away?"

"Or did she guide them somewhere he wouldn't be able to bring it," you muse. You glance at the priest - he'd be the most likely to know something about this.

Like the narrow passage of a crypt?

"Well, after the rites, I was given the honor of carrying her body into the crypt," the priest replies. "The passage inside is quite narrow, however. If a large enough group were working their way through at once, that rainguard would be prone to poking and prodding constantly, no matter how you tried to carry it. We only got the coffin through because it was just two of us carrying it and we could focus entirely on it."

"It's a lead worth pursuing. Where is the crypt?" the red-haired woman asks.

"Not far from here. She first served in a church at the seaside, and wished to be buried there. Both for sentimentality, and because it would be closer to Nual."

"All the more likely, then," you say. "A big group of priests would attract a lot of attention. You wouldn't want to take them very far. Lead the way, and maybe we can get some introductions done while we're at it. If we get into a fight and need to shout somebody's name, best that we know whose name we're shouting."

"Well, you're Minnie. I recognize you from the posters around town already," the red-haired woman says. "Although I don't know who your friend in the mask is. But you can call me Marian."

"I am in a phase of my training where I am to forego my name temporarily," the priest replies. "Until I have passed, I am to think of myself as nothing more than a drop of water in the ocean."

"Drip, then," Arlene says. "I'm Arlene, nice to meet you all."

"If you must call me something, that is a reasonable option," the priest shrugs. "At any rate, we should reach the crypt soon."

He's not kidding. It's barely more than a minute before you can see the church. It'll still take some time to walk there, but not much. You might even be able to get back before the Golem arrives.

"Just to be clear, is this place marked on the map you saw?" you ask Marian.

"It looks like it. I think we should investigate the crypt before trying to work out what the map means, however."

Which is strange, since she's the one who was so interested. But she did say she was trying to track someone down, and maybe the priests are a better lead on that.

Drip leads you to the back of the church, which is the cemetery. As he guides you to the stone door of the main crypt, you glance around just in case you spot something interesting.

No, you don't see anything unusu--whoops! Why is the grass here so slippery?

But apparently, it would have been better to keep your eyes on the ground in front of you. You lose your footing and slip.

As you pick yourself up, you spot a strange messy substance on the ground. Marian glances at it, and scowls.

"This is made from sea terror ooze, but it's been mixed with something I can't identify," she says. "And there's some kind of ether trigger on it."

"Ether trigger?" Arlene asks.

"Somebody's set this up so that the effect only kicks in when a wizard tells it to. Which probably means, whatever it does, there's a wizard around who can activate it. Best be careful, and don't step in any more. For all we know, it might be able to affect your mind." She glances at your feet. "Doesn't look especially sticky, fortunately. There's barely any on your shoe, shouldn't be enough to cause trouble. But there might be more of it around."

As you enter the crypt, it becomes clear that there's quite a bit more of it around. Puddles of the strange substance are everywhere. Not so thick that you can't step around them, but the passage is tight enough that it makes maneuvering even more awkward.

Drip takes the lead, as he's familiar. Marian takes up the rear. You hope that's not so she can run off and leave the rest of you to fend for yourselves.

Suddenly, Drip stops, and turns to the rest of you.

"There is a problem," he says.

The passage ahead is flooded.

You're just behind him, so you can soon see for yourself. The passage ahead is sloping downward heading deeper underground. But it's filled with water.

"I'm guessing this wasn't here when you carried the coffin," you tell him.

"It was not. I am concerned - even if this has nothing to do with my disappearing colleagues, it may have caused damage to the crypt itself."

"I'll take a look," Marian says. "Let me squeeze past."

She slips past the rest of you one at a time, then dives into the water. Huh, you wouldn't have taken her for a swimmer. Especially not the sort to hop in fully dressed.

It's a few minutes before she comes back up.

"There's a stone door at the bottom," she says. "Is that part of the crypt?"

"I do not remember," Drip says. "It may have been open when I was here before."

"It's probably keeping the water out," Arlene says. "So maybe there's someone at the bottom using the water to stop people like us from following them in."

You glance at Marian.

"You're a wizard. Any chance you can do something about this?"

"Several ideas come to mind, but most of them would risk damaging the crypt. The rest would take hours," she sighs. She comes out of the water fully, raises a hand, and suddenly dries herself. "I did find something while I was down there, though, and it might be of interest to the crew of the Golem."

She holds something up. It takes you a moment to get a good look at it, since Drip is in the way.

It's some kind of stone that resembles a fish. Drip seems extremely surprised by it.

"That went missing years ago!" he exclaims. "There were fierce arguments about whether Matilda Laikenne stole it!"

"What is it, exactly?" you ask.

"A holy relic of Nual. The fish it depicts is blessed. I know nothing more about it."

But it has an aura, you notice. And you're starting to wonder something.

"Funny. I found another holy relic of Nual tonight." You hold up the shell. "Wonder if there's a connection..."

"Let me see that," Marian says. She steps a bit closer. And as she does, you see the auras get very bright. So these go together? Never heard of a fish living in a seashell, though...

The auras suddenly get so bright you can't keep your eyes open. And then you hear a loud rushing sound.

You open your eyes carefully. The water's gone.

"They must have used these together to raise the water," Marian muses. "Then hid the shell and you stumbled on it. Don't know why they didn't keep this someplace safer, though..."

She pauses.

"Well, I suppose not just anyone can go diving that deep," she concludes. "Why not put it behind the door rather than in front of it, though?"

"Because they didn't want any priests touching it, maybe?" Arlene asks. "I mean, we're guessing they've got a bunch of them down there. Maybe it can do something besides controlling the water."

"We can speculate later. Right now, let's take a look at that door you mentioned," you say. "See if there's any trick to opening it."

Marian nods. You all follow her down.

Thankfully, the passage widens right before the door, so you've got some actual elbow room. Makes it easier to look around. The door seems firmly shut, but maybe there's something out here that can help you past it.

Can you get at the door's hinges or are those on the inside? Might have to batter it down with a headstone, unless... Did we try knocking?

Your first question is how the door is even attached. But you can't get any clue to that - whatever mechanism opens it seems to be on the other side. In fact, from this side you're not even sure air can get through.

Which makes sense if it's meant to block the water, but if the priests really are inside, they wouldn't be able to last too long without fresh air. For their sake, you hope there's some other route for air to get in.

"Could you knock it down with a spell?" you ask Marian.

"That would draw a lot of attention, but there might be something subtler I can do." She touches the door. "Lightweight."

Then she starts pushing on it, and frowns.

"It didn't work. Something's interfering. It should be substantially lighter, and easier to move. In fact, it feels like I used way more ether than I meant to."

"So I suppose more destructive magic's out, then?"

She nods.

"Yeah, there's something that messes with it. If we're forcing it down, we'll have to stick to physical strength. Which means, I suppose, that we'll have to go out and find some sort of battering ram."

"Well, before that, I have a thought," Drip interjects. "It will take but a moment to try. If the rest of you would kindly give me some space?"

You stand back, and he starts tapping on the door. In a very distinctive pattern.

"You think they'll just let us in?" Arlene asks.

"Well, how they greet us depends on if the kidnappers are there, or if there are only captured priests. Either way, they should find it strange that someone is knocking on the door when there is supposed to be a mass of water outside."

"Yeah, but what if they don't know the water's gone?" Arlene muses. "Can't investigate very easily if opening the door's going to flood the place. And if they've got some way of knowing that it's gone, they probably already know we're here, so why open the door."

She has a point. So you're probably back to the battering ram plan.

Except, surprisingly, the door opens. Nobody seems to come out, though.

Everyone exchanges glances.

"This seems a lot like a trap," you say. "So, who goes in first and springs it?"

Everyone votes for the guy in the armor