Jodon rushes over to the fallen man seeing that his cloak hood covers his head. He is face down and splayed out weirdly. There is a small, dark stain where the hood meets the cloak. Pulling the hood back, Jodon checks for a pulse only to find none. The dust now settled and the battle lust over, the four members of this group see the room in earnest. It was clearly a kitchen before, as the stove is a dead giveaway to that. Most of the cabinet door are missing and there are blood stains on nearly all of the counter tops. The corpse that the man was sewing together has a large Y shaped cut on its chest, which the string and needle hang from. Broken bits of china litter the floor and corners of the room. The state of this room could not have been created in a short amount of time; whatever was going on here has been doing so for quite some time.

Hearing the catch in Dathyra's voice, Jodon walks over to her and says, in a voice he hopes is too soft for any others to hear,  "You did what had to be done, nothing more. "  Remembering his own hesitation during the brief battle, his voice drops even lower.  "You protected us."

Sly stood up and dust himself off and looked at the others then the body's then walked over to the one that was Undead not really saying anything to the cleric he wasn't really good at comforting others around death. He really didn't want to make it any worst by checking out the other body for money or anything not really knowing how they'd react to that because he really wanted to just get out of here.

Jodon's words made her feel a little better, but not by much. All life matters, no matter their sins of the past, the temple had taught her. And while true, self-defense and the protection of others were exceptions, that didn't change how horrible it felt. She decided to direct her attention elsewhere. She couldn't bear to look at the man on the floor. Instead, she looked at the corpse on the counter behind her.

"According to our employer, Kristoff had said some odd things before his departure," she said, thinking aloud, glad to have something else occupy her mind. "Maybe he knew about all of this, and no one heeded his warnings because of his unpleasant disposition. But just what is all of this?"

She winced at that thought. Had she not have killed the man, perhaps they could have gotten some information from him. Instead, Dathyra turned her attention to the body. She could remember many afternoons spent in the dusty libraries of the temple, listening to older clerics drone on about various religious sects and cults. True, the work had been tedious, but she had come away with a working knowledge of what to look for when searching for signs of malevolent religious activity.

Religion: 12

Looking the corpse over, Dathyra sees many tell-tale signs of necromancy. Various symbols carved into the flesh, black cloth wrappings around the wrists and ankles and odd stitching designs were blatant warnings of evil magic. How they were used or what purpose any of the symbols meant were lost to Dathyra, though. She was taught what to stay away from, not how to use such things. Something metallic catches Dathyra's attention inside the half-stitched chest cavity just as she is about to look away.

Holg walks over to Dathyra and Jodon standing over the now dead human. "Excellent shot Dathyra! You looked like a natural with that mace." He picks up the man's silver mirror and glances into it, only to check his reflection. "Yup, still looking good.", he says, before sliding the mirror across the middle table towards its center. "I wonder what he was doing with these bodies?" Holg flips his dagger from his belt loop and begins to carve open the body on the table across its stitching lines.

Inside is a jumble of things packed around where a heart should be. A silver symbol lies on top of the cloth as if it had been intended to be sewn in.

She prickled a little at Holg's congratulations. That was not something she was wanting to hear right now. However, those thoughts were lost as she observed him beginning to carve into the corpse. "Careful, there's something lodged in there. If we can remove it without causing any damage, we might be able to learn more information." She looked over to Jodon. "I trust that you've not had involvement in dark magics, but this is far beyond my own purview. Perhaps you can take a look once Holg removes the item?" 

Jodon smiles at Dathyra's implied encouragement.  "When our friend finishes liberating what is inside, I will do my best.  Speaking of which," he walks over to the now-busy Holg and puts a hand on his back.  "It was...inspiring...to see you in action, to leap between your friends and danger, and to still have the presence of mind to shout back encouragement to your friends.  I am certain you can perform this delicate work just as neatly."

Booted footsteps thud across a room to a position above the party, breaking up the moment of relative ease. After a few seconds there, they head off in a direction that would be towards the opening the man fled, were it on this floor. A whistled tune can be heard from the room beyond now.

Holg looks at the group with a smug grin. "Who is ready for round two?" he asks as he makes his way towards the noise, quietly whistling the same tune coming from the unknown room.

Despite his earlier hesitation, Jodon cannot help but grin in return.  "That sort of self-confidence is refreshing, don't you think" the halfling asks both Dathyra and Sly, as he loads another bolt and moves to follow the big man.

Sly looked around for a place to hide and tried to hide from what might come in and got his short bow and holding his arrow to get ready for the thing. 

Dathyra wasn’t sure she was ready for another round, but it looked like they didn’t have a choice. She kept quiet and followed behind the others.

The archway leading out of the kitchen opens into a scene quite unexpected. It opens into a large room - grand by most standards - although the central staircase has been removed. Heaps of dirt and rock cover the place surrounding a hole in the middle of the room. One pile even reaches the twenty-or-so foot ceiling above the floor. Strong vertical beams have been constructed all the way to the ceiling around a large pulley. A strong mesh of ropes suspends a cart in the air just level with the floor. Above the central floor is a railed balcony supported by heavy, wooden columns. A ladder leads from the first floor to the second in place of the missing staircase about 35 feet from the kitchen archway. The whistling continues along the balcony and then swifty a man slides down the ladder using his boots to control his momentum. On the way down he calls out, "Brin, are you done-" His words are cut short as he spots Holg. The man draws a shortsword and asks evenly, "Who the hell are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Who are you? And what are you doing here in this house?" Holg stands in the archway leading to the kitchen in hopes to hide the rest of the party from this man's view.

Unable to see the man past Holg, Jodon casts his eyes upwards, trying to make sense of the ropes and machinery around the room.

The man looks Holg over and then with a sneer asks, "You're here to loot the place aren't you? A common thug - kind of large to be thieving aren't you? Where is Brin?" With the last question the man narrows his eyes and moves over, but not closer to try and get a better view past Holg.

Jodon:

"Look here! Your friend, Brin, decided to attack me before we could talk. Perhaps you would be wise to not jump so quickly to the same conclusions and fate as he did. Personally, I could care less about your little necromancy party. We, however..", Holg now steps aside to reveal Jodon and Dathyra behind him in the kitchen, "... We are on a mission to find Kristoff, the owner of this manor. Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be. Now then, I will only ask you nicely just once. Where is Kristoff?"