Under the combined fire of Richter and Sylnora's arcane assault, the cultist falls, crumpling to the ground in a heap of scorched robes. The spiritual weapon blinks out of existence, and the clearing falls to silence once more...

((Exit initiative for now))

Krizira moves forward, trying to find the closest of the fallen cultists. "Was it two that escaped? We should keep an eye out."  She is still holding her bow in one hand, ready should anyone return. She will give a brief check of the body, presuming she can find it. (Investigation: 15)

"Only one escaped, I think.  It was the sneaky leader who was invisible at first and then moved quickly and shot Richter with his hand crossbow.  I was ah... surprised that he was the leader and not the priest who cast the spells.  He left the priest to die, which he did willingly like the others..."

Most of Xarian's duty near Acrine has been going after troublesome bandits or some moderately dangerous beast, or rescuing someone stranded.  And getting pummeled in the practice yard, of course.  But he is having trouble grasping the concept of laying down your life for someone who would coldly instruct you to die while they escaped as the cultist leader just did with the cultist priest.  He shakes himself out of these dark thoughts with some effort.

"Should be four corpses - the priest and the three others.  We should search them quickly, then attempt to track the leader...  perhaps he left tracks."  The words sound like wishful thinking to Xarian even as they leave his lips.  Nevertheless, he gamely attempts to find clues or a trail.

Xarian Survival plus Bardic Inspiration:  10 + 4 = 14

Looking over the nearest body, Krizira finds that besides their clothes and cloak, the only thing they carried was that curved shortsword. Underneath the hood you find another elf, though a woman this time. You do notice that despite them not landing a single blow upon your party with it, the blade seems to have fresh blood on it.

Checking the ground for made tracks, Xarian finds the area littered with them. There are plenty leading away from the clearing, but an equal amount leading into it. You'd definitely be able to follow one of the trails, but you aren't entirely confident which are fresh and which are old.

As things quiet down, Richter moves back to the center of the clearing, fitting the crystal lenses over his eyes as he begins to go through the pack and what was in it. He also checks the ground in the area, trying to discern if a struggle took place in the clearing before they arrived.

Investigation: 24

"Fresh signs of blood on this one's blade," Krizira tells the others.  "They had at least one other victim this evening."

She then stands, moving a bit towards where Richter is looking at the pack. Her attention shifts between him and the forest to the south where the other cultists fled, wary they might return. (Perception: 6)

"So many tracks coming and going.  I don't know which way the leader went.  Though we could pick some tracks and follow."

Following Krizira's lead, Xarian and Ash continue to look around, the owl from the trees, for any approaching enemies while Richter examines clues.  "It is strange.  What were they hoping for - that they could lure passers by with the sounds of a scream and a distant figure?  I would guess most travelers would avoid that.  Unless they knew it was us and that we would pursue.  And if the scream was real and the fresh blood... where is the victim's corpse?"

"It does seem like we should have seen a victim somewhere," Krizira says. "Perhaps once Richter checks the pack we move out to see if we can pick up tracks on the one that left. We probably need to get out of this clearing and see if we can get a fresh track once we're clear of the jumble of others here."

Richter is immediately able to pick up the distinctive metallic scent of blood as he picks up the pack. There is a large tear in it through the middle, straight through both sides and bloodied - as if someone tried to use it as a shield before they were stabbed through. The contents are likewise covered in blood, mostly made up of simple travel supplies. There's a small coin pouch inside with 25 gold pieces and 30 silver pieces. Inside you find a smaller satchel, filled with dozens upon dozens of sealed letters.

You also notice a large amount of blood covering the ground around where you found the pack, far more than what you would expect from even the most grievous of wounds. A struggle definitely took place here, and whoever lost was gutted and drained on the spot. 

There's also some kind of ashy residue in a small pile, but no signs of burning or a fire.

As the rest of you keep watch, nothing returns from the treeline.

"I do agree we should not stay here.  Should we burn the cultists' bodies?"  Xarian shifts uncomfortably, thinking of all the ghost stories he and the few other street urchins in Acrine would tell to try to scare each other.  He had always laughed them off.  Real life was tough enough.

"This talk of the King of Bone makes me think of them coming back as undead skeletons or something."

Krizira approaches Richter as he examines the pack. She tries to learn what she can from the copious amount of blood, as well as the ashy material as well. (Survival: 15, trying to get an idea of this is blood from one creature/humanoid, or it would take more, does she recognize where the ash might be from, any other clues)

"Burning the bodies might take time, but I suppose it may be for the best."

"In favor of burning," Sylnora mentions, raising her hand. "We don't need to waste time trying to start a fire either, help me stack the bodies and then I can handle the rest." Trying not to look too hard at the corpses, she gets to work dragging them into a small area. This entire situation had her feeling ill. She knew these kinds of things happened but...It wasn't what she expected when she left home.

When they've gathered them all, she steps back and casts create bonfire on the space, letting the bodies ignite before ending her concentration on the spell.

"This is...Gruesome." Richter says. He takes the satchel full of envelopes out, playing it in his own pack to take a look through later. The rest of the pack, he lets fall back down to the ground. "This feels like some sort of ritual sacrifice. That figure your bird saw was probably the victim, I wonder if they even really expected us."

As Syl begins to take care of the bodies, he quickly moves to help, stacking the bodies where she indicates.

"Now off to try and follow that joyful fellow?"

Krizira: This looks like a lot of blood drained from one adult humanoid. Upon investigating the ash pile, you rubs some of it between your fingers. Compared to the leftover ash from a bonfire or something, it's very light and coarse - almost like sand. The elves who took you in would cremate their dead, as there was too little land to spare for traditional burials. The feel of this stuff reminds you of that.

Sylnora and Richter are able to gather up the bodies, which quickly alight with the former's bonfire spell.

Krizira related what she has guessed about the ashes being consistent with cremated remains.  "A lot of work to drain the body like that and do that.  They must have had some purpose."

With Richter and Sylnora not needing much help, she keeps an eye out as they work.  Once they are done, she agrees with Richter about trying to find the other person that fled.

Two options:

• Someone roll a d4 to follow a random track
• Make another survival check (taking more time) to try and identify which set of tracks heading south are the newest

Krizira will make an attempt at picking out the newest track from the clearing. (Survival: 17)

It takes some time, about 15 minutes or so of trying to untangle the tracks criss-crossing the south end clearing, but you're able to nail down a trail that's almost certainly fresh. When you look up, you find that Techlas has vanished, fled into the night.

You follow the tracks deeper into the woods, finding that the local flora seems almost sickly as traverse further. Even the evergreens seem to be wilting and losing their pine needles, and almost all of the bushes are dead or dying. 

For about another hour you walk through the trees, until the tracks end abruptly as they run into a massive boulder.

Xarian feels increasingly uneasy as the group proceeds.  What is happening here?  The creepy cultists and the dying plants.  I did not think we would find this kind of strangeness until we reached Pendle.  And now Techlas has disappeared...  some music to inspire us might have been nice.

Upon arriving at the boulder, Xarian stands back and looks at it appraisingly.  "I am not sure I can move that.  Unless it is... ah, an illusion or something?  Does one of you want to poke it with your, um..." (it takes a moment for Xarian to remember the name of the cantrip he never learned) "... with your Mage Hand?  Or maybe there is a secret door that opens within the rock?"  He stares more closely at the boulder and all around.

Xarian Investigation:  16

Richter raises an eyebrow, inspecting the boulder from afar at first. "An illusion you think?" He says, glancing to Xarian. Hefting his longsword, he steps towards the massive rock and taps around the front it with the blade. If that doesn't yield anything, he lends his eyes to Xarian, helping investigate around the area.