What's going on?

[Lyinginbedmon]

Okay, there's a series of things going on around Beldor, a big city.

From previous experience, we know that the water supply comes from an underground stream, which is also used to occasionally empty out the sewer system. The stream also runs into a cavern underneath an ex-BBEG's mansion (He's since vacated). We also know that there's a very small natural tunnel that goes from a druidic forest outside the city into the cavern.

Now, for the events happening around the city:

• A few weeks ago, a member of the Yondalla priesthood went missing and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
• A number of caucasian women of similar figure have been kidnapped and found, skinned and lobotomised, a few days later, (fortunately) dead. The few witness reports say the victims were dragged into the sewers by giant demonic snakes. Oddly, there don't appear to be any signs of a weapon involved in their skinning or lobotmisation, save perhaps that most of their blood vessel are left in a somewhat haggard state about them.
• Over in the forest, a number of druids have been attacked by similar snakes guarding a number of giant octopi who, strangely, do little else but gather firewood before retreating into the tunnel to the ex-BBEG's cavern.

Anyone have any ideas what the heck is going on here? I'm completely confused.

[kamikasei]

From previous experience, we know that the water supply comes from an underground stream, which is also used to occasionally empty out the sewer system. The stream also runs into a cavern underneath an ex-BBEG's mansion (He's since vacated). We also know that there's a very small natural tunnel that goes from a druidic forest outside the city into the cavern.

An ex-BBEG's mansion, as in, it's the mansion of a former BBEG, or it's the former mansion of an extant BBEG?

In other words, if foul play's afoot, is there reason to suspect that the mansion's owner is involved, even from a distance?

Now, for the events happening around the city:

• A few weeks ago, a member of the Yondalla priesthood went missing and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
• A number of caucasian women of similar figure have been kidnapped and found, skinned and lobotomised, a few days later, (fortunately) dead. The few witness reports say the victims were dragged into the sewers by giant demonic snakes. Oddly, there don't appear to be any signs of a weapon involved in their skinning or lobotmisation, save perhaps that most of their blood vessel are left in a somewhat haggard state about them.

Can you expand on this?
The women are "of similar figure" to one another or to the missing priest? What are those figures/features?
No weapon? What are there signs of? Do the bodies look to have been maimed by natural weapons, had their skin dissolved off by acid, their brains extracted by illithids, or some magic spell vanish the relevant organs altogether?
"Most of their blood vessel are left in a somewhat haggard state about them" - sorry, more detail needed. Are their blood vessels ruptured or damaged as if, say, they were frozen suddently, or exposed to vacuum? Or have their veins and arteries actually been separated from the body in some way?

[Lyinginbedmon]

The mansion used to be owned by a BBEG, but is presently vacant.

The women all have a similar figure, but not to the priest. They are between 18-23 years old, ~5' 4", ~140 lb., caucasian.

Picture a biology text book, with an image of someone without their skin, so just the musculature underneath. The blood vessels have been disconnected pre-mortum, and most are hanging or dangling to some extent outside the musculature. The frontal lobes are completely gone from their skulls, with no signs of external penetration. Clearly whoever did it was more skilled than most modern physicians, or they used magic. The skin itself and the missing lobes, are simply "gone" for lack of a better explanation.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Some more questions (if you have answers):

- Are the bodies completely drained of blood?
- What position were the bodies in when found and where were they found? (unceremoniously dumped somewhere, hanging from a streetpost, left in the same dark alley?)
- Are there any cults that have ever worked in the city before? Particularly any that deal in snakes?
- Do the bodies disapear in a noticeable pattern? (Same time/day every week?) Maybe instigating a curfew can help flush the villain out of hiding.
- Did the Yondalla priest go missing before or after the murders? (BTW, which deity is Yondalla again?) Would they have the means to control strange 'land octopi'?

What we know:
- Culprit needs firewood. Any woodsmoke coming from any sewer grates or entrances?
- Culprit needs brain parts, skin and I'm guessing alot of blood.
- The frontal lobe processes alot of functions that make humans 'human' (social, decision making, memory, etc...). Any rituals or magic spells require this as a material component? Maybe some mad scientist is trying to make his flesh golem smarter?
- Snakes shed skin -> victims are robbed of their skin. Possible MO for a creepy giant snake dude?

[Emperor Demonking]

Yondalla is the halfling goddess.

[Telok]

Somebody is making something. Bad magic is involved. They could be sacrifices to a demon type thing, but this sounds more like gathering material for an arts and craft project.

Find out if the bodies have any blood left in them. If they haven't been bled out before being skinned there may be a blood trail in the sewers. This is more likely if the bodies aren't completely drained and the blood vessels have been ruptured. If the bodies are entirely drained then the blood is another component of whatever is being made. If the bodies have all/most of the blood left then magic is being used to skin these girls, possibly alive. If most of the blood is still present in the bodies and the blood vessels are mostly intact then you should have a decent trail to follow if the bodies have been transported to where they were dumped.

Actually that could be important. Try to find out if the victims were skinned and debrained where the bodies are found, or if they were transported to and from a central location or workshop.

Whoever is doing this needs to be smashed and done in. If nothing else then they'll cause a shortage of pretty young women. Stick an illusion on your barbarian and go fishing. Wound, but do not kill, the giant demonic snake. Track it back to it's master.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Some more questions (if you have answers):

- Are the bodies completely drained of blood?
- What position were the bodies in when found and where were they found? (unceremoniously dumped somewhere, hanging from a streetpost, left in the same dark alley?)
- Are there any cults that have ever worked in the city before? Particularly any that deal in snakes?
- Do the bodies disapear in a noticeable pattern? (Same time/day every week?) Maybe instigating a curfew can help flush the villain out of hiding.
- Did the Yondalla priest go missing before or after the murders? (BTW, which deity is Yondalla again?) Would they have the means to control strange 'land octopi'?

-By virtue, we suspect, of the ruptured blood vessels
-Unceremoniously dumped in alleyways
-There was one cult that worshipped the ex-BBEG as a deity a while back, but they've since been eliminated entirely
-The bodies disappear roughly one a week at random
-Lux Lucis (The priestess) vanished prior to the murders. As a cleric of Yondalla, she has, as far as we know, no ability to control the octopi or the snakes.

[Anxe]

I suspect mindflayers or Yuanti. Either way you should prepare for psionics. As for how to catch them, you said the captured women look similar. disguise or polymorph a party member to look like them and use her as bait.

[kamikasei]

I assume from what you've said that the witnesses and druids have seen multiple snakes at once, and there definitely isn't just one?

When you say the octopi take firewood, do you mean that they take actual chopped firewood that's left out to dry or something, that the druids have specifically said that they choose only wood suitable for burning, or that you're assuming it's for use in a fire (in other words, might they be doing anything else with the wood besides burning it)?

Whether it's something like illithid or yuan-ti will depend in part on how likely your DM is to be using some homebrewed monster or spell/ritual which any class-leveled villain could use.

It seems very clear that there is something nasty being brewed up under the mansion. It's possible a dam is being constructed with this wood, or that furnaces of some sort are in operation. Is there any sign of smoke?

The real puzzle I think is the disappearance of the priestess. It's not obviously connected to the other two.

[FlyMolo]

Right. Let's make a list.

BBEG has:
-Snakes
-Octopi
-Probably yondalla priestess.

BBEG needs:
-Wood
-Brains
-Skin

BBEG is making:
-Flesh golem?
-Construct?
-Army?

It sounds like there's one particular woman the BBEG is looking for. Check for relatives of that priestess. Find out what they look like. Check against descriptions of the vanishing women. Organize some kind of census of women who look like the vanished ones.

Most importantly, invade that mansion. Find out what's going on down there.

[kamikasei]

Given that the priestess is a cleric of Yondalla (actually, you didn't say she was a cleric, but it's not really a factor just now), can we assume she's a halfling, and thus bears little resemblance to the murdered/missing women?

[Lyinginbedmon]

Amazingly we actually haven't asked if Lucis was a halfling...we'll need to remedy that at some point soon

The octopi seem to be physically chopping up trees and similar plant matter for wood, which they're taking back with them.

There's definitely more than one snake, there's been reports of up to 5 at a time. The octopi tend to be no more than 3 at a time though.

Thinking way back, during the time the cult was operating a number of children were kidnapped and implanted with Tsochar (See Lords of Madness), to serve as fake divine messengers. The party managed to retrieve all but one of them: Elizabeth Kerrigan. There is a possibility I suppose that she could be involved somehow, since we're fairly certain she escaped into the sewer system, which seems to be home base for these creatures. The DM is certainly well known for making us keep our prior actions in memory...

[BRC]

Thinking way back, during the time the cult was operating a number of children were kidnapped and implanted with Tsochar (See Lords of Madness), to serve as fake divine messengers. The party managed to retrieve all but one of them: Elizabeth Kerrigan. There is a possibility I suppose that she could be involved somehow, since we're fairly certain she escaped into the sewer system, which seems to be home base for these creatures. The DM is certainly well known for making us keep our prior actions in memory...

Does your DM play Starcraft perchance, if he does, expect said kerrigan to turn into a human/one of whatever these things are hybrid, also, she's a psion.

[Ganurath]

Snakes make me think Yuan-Ti, but octopi and missing brains make me think illithids. Given the respective CRs between the two, it's easy to see a one-sided relationship forming favoring the mind flayers, probably giving the Yuan-Ti a Dark Eldar mindset: They want brains, they don't care who's brains they get. Let's kill some surface folk, send their brains to the illithids, and we'll get some mammal skins to burn as offerings to Merrshaulk. Better if we were on top, but we still get room for personal advance and we aren't the ones getting our brains eaten.

Perhaps the priestess of Yondalla went to investigate things, as she is actually the priestess of some other halfling deity non-halflings never hear about that favors a more aggressive tact, and now she's either dead or trapped underground. The priestess is the mastermind behind the attacks, because someone matching the description of the victims had been victimizing halflings, probably bragging about her comparative good looks and intelligence. The priestess makes the victims watch as their boasted features are burned in front of them.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Does your DM play Starcraft perchance, if he does, expect said kerrigan to turn into a human/one of whatever these things are hybrid, also, she's a psion.

Yes, we were well aware of the connection the instant we heard the name of her mother. According to him, the name is from Elizabeth Borden and Sarah Kerrigan. Fortunately, Psionics isn't in play period in the campaign setting, by his decree.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Snakes make me think Yuan-Ti, but octopi and missing brains make me think illithids. Given the respective CRs between the two, it's easy to see a one-sided relationship forming favoring the mind flayers, probably giving the Yuan-Ti a Dark Eldar mindset: They want brains, they don't care who's brains they get. Let's kill some surface folk, send their brains to the illithids, and we'll get some mammal skins to burn as offerings to Merrshaulk. Better if we were on top, but we still get room for personal advance and we aren't the ones getting our brains eaten.

Perhaps the priestess of Yondalla went to investigate things, as she is actually the priestess of some other halfling deity non-halflings never hear about that favors a more aggressive tact, and now she's either dead or trapped underground. The priestess is the mastermind behind the attacks, because someone matching the description of the victims had been victimizing halflings, probably bragging about her comparative good looks and intelligence. The priestess makes the victims watch as their boasted features are burned in front of them.

Unfortunately, the fact that only part of the brain is missing likely rules out mind flayers (they scarf down the whole thing). Also, illithids tend to bore holes into the skulls of their unfortunate victims to sup on their delicious brain meats, but these victims were found with their skulls intact and only part of their gray matter missing.

[BRC]

Unfortunately, the fact that only part of the brain is missing likely rules out mind flayers (they scarf down the whole thing). Also, illithids tend to bore holes into the skulls of their unfortunate victims to sup on their delicious brain meats, but these victims were found with their skulls intact and only part of their gray matter missing.

High-class illithids, they only want the most delectable part of the brain

[SpikeFightwicky]

High-class illithids, they only want the most delectable part of the brain

Curse those illithid aristocrats! Even abominations have a class society. I pity the mind flayer on the bottom rung:
Please sir... I some more.... brains.
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ganurath]

Unfortunately, the fact that only part of the brain is missing likely rules out mind flayers (they scarf down the whole thing). Also, illithids tend to bore holes into the skulls of their unfortunate victims to sup on their delicious brain meats, but these victims were found with their skulls intact and only part of their gray matter missing.

Yeah, my theory about the halfling rules out both parties anyhow. If she's actually a priestess of... the other halfling goddess... then she'd be able to use multiple castings of Summon Monster VII to get Fiendish varieties of both giant constrictor teams and giant octopi.

[Illiterate Scribe]

I'd check the caves under the mansion, Lying.

What sort of resources do you have? Is there any way that you could mark and then track any of the things leaving or entering the cave network?

• Women's brains - probably not.
• Snakes - meh, there don't seem to be enough sightings to make this feasible. They probably won't attack if they know you're there, too.
• Octopi - possible. As far as I can tell, they aren't going to be overly maneuverable, so splashing them with some sort of smelly/trackable stuff is a possibility.
• Wood - this might work. Aromatic/resinous woods could be left out for the octopi (how intelligent are they, btw? If they're summoned monsters, then whoever's controlling them is going to be quite close), which could then be tracked.

[Lyinginbedmon]

We have a Human Diviner/Loremaster, who actually seems to have better firepower than our last Dread Necromancer, a Human Fighter, and a Drow Arachnomancer (He is Evil, but we're not exactly certain what his goals are).

And Commy, that line is hilarious, if InkScape weren't persistently crashing for me at the moment I'd make a little art piece to it's effect

[Ganurath]

We have a Human Diviner/Loremaster

Stop right there. Ask the halflings for something of the priestess's so that you can divine on her. Ask the latest/next victim's loved ones for something belonging to the victim so you can divine on her. Use a tree stump as a focus to divine on the firewood/support beams for tunneling, if that's possible. You shouldn't have a mystery if you have divinations.

[Lyinginbedmon]

We gave that a shot but all we got was the equivalent of a 404 message

[Ganurath]

We gave that a shot but all we got was the equivalent of a 404 message

Did you try sending an arcane eye down the bunny holy? [read: BBEG tunnel]

[Lyinginbedmon]

We considered an Arcane Eye to have too little illumination to function as a useful reconnaisance spell in this instance, but suffice it to say we haven't tried it

[Illiterate Scribe]

I lol'd.

Could the arachnomancer cast the arcane eye? They could use their darkvision, see ...

[Lyinginbedmon]

It's possible, but that's going to require a Diplomacy/Intimidate check all of its own...

[Illiterate Scribe]

Aah. That sort of party.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Yes, it's that kind of party, though we're fairly certain it won't impact much because we have a fairly easy way of keeping him in check.

One is a spontaneous gout of flame that produces no pressure, the other a sharp pointy thing composed of a mix of iron and carbon.

EDIT: New info:
We "persuaded" the arachnomancer to send the eye down. We didn't find anything but there were splinters everywhere, and an extremely foul smell to boot. It also appears that the rubble that blocked off one end of the stream through the cavern has been cleared, specifically the one that leads to the city.

I've still got no idea what's going on, but it's looking more and more unlikely that the priestess is the one pulling the strings. It certainly doesn't seem that the cavern itself is back in use.

[FlyMolo]

Sounds a little like someone is building flesh golem variants. Like a wooden thingie covered in skin with a brain in it. Like a really creepy scarecrow.