Chapel to Lamashtu: The Aftermath
Kael surveys the room, picking up the scrolls that he has identified, as well as those he hasn't, and tucking them into his belt.
"It stinks of evil in here" he 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."
Mal sniffs at Kael's heels. "What is it boy?" whispers Kael to his faithful companion. "Got a scent?"
Mal edges forward towards the altar, his nose pressed to the floor. The heckles on his back are raised, as if he fears something. He moves around the altar, his nose still down, sweeping back and forth, back and forth. As he reaches the recessed spiral staircase, he stops, and raises his head.
Kael moves beside him. "I can feel it too, boy. The evil we are feeling is coming from the chapel, its coming from down there, isn't it. You can almost smell it!"
The spiral staircase winds down at a difficult angle. The top five steps are recent additions, dating from about the same time as the Chapel itself. The lower steps, just visible through the darkness, are older, heavily smoothed with age and the ancient passing of many feet. The strange angle of the staircase suggests, perhaps, that what lies below was part of an older set of levels. Perhaps the local rumours that Thistletop was built atop the head of some gargantuan ancient statue were not wrong after all. That would explain the heavily weathered bumps that almost looked like a hooked nose and brows as you approached the stone island. The slant of the stairwell may be because the head did not rest at a level keel.
Jovik moves over beside Kael, the unidentified cloak in his hands. He peers down the stairs, as if trying to see what Kael and Mal see.
"We can climb that. No problem."
Danth, having tended to Jokad, moves to explore the chapel. The horrific stonework continues right around the room, damaged in places, but clearly showing scene after scene of monsters eat, rending, ruling over hordes of men and elves. The emblem of Lamashtu, mother of monsters, is repeated over and over.
By the corpse of Lyrie, the table contains fragments of stones that do not come from this room. They are generally larger fragments, some are partial statues, or men this time. Several carry broken fragments of the same seven pointed star rune that you have seen several times before now, such as in the Catacombs beneath the Glassworks. The runes that accompany these pieces are ancient and indecipherable. It appears that Lyrie was studying them. Her notebook, open, misted with a single line of blood droplets, contains her notes.
Danth picks up the little book and flicks through. She has recreated images of completed statues, as if forming an impression from the fragmented pieces. There are images of the runes, painstakingly drawn out, with dotted sections to show her interpretation of how incomplete runes may have finished. She notes recurrence of runes, and has her own scrawling text beside trying to decipher common occurrences. It is as if she is trying to piece together some puzzle, or decipher some larger text.
The words you do find repeated often as "Greed, Hunger, Wrath, Karzoug, Alaznist, Tax" and so on. Danth pockets the book, and moves to join Kael and Jovik.
Jokad, letting out a weary sigh, rises. His leg still hurts. A lot. Such is the life of a warrior!
