We arrive at the Temple of the Hammer's mortuary. The rancid scent of the body immediately dissipates. Always happens when we come down here, there's probably a spell of some sort responsible for that. Torches line the walls, offering a good amount of light to see by, though the lack of windows is still apparent. Whenever we have an unidentified body, we take it here. They keep the body in some sort of stasis for a few days to let us find out who they are before burial, let loved ones know. We also take the time to see if a wizard can gather any information from the body or spirit, according to them, temples amplify magics relating to spirits.
'Spooks' shows up to prepare a slab for the body to rest on. The clergy of this temple leave the mortuary to him, only coming out here when funerary rites need to be performed.
The local gravedigger and manager of the bodies awaiting burial, Lawrence Tunneler, looks so much like a corpse himself that he's earned that nickname among the watch. Add to that the way he moves, stiff, jarring motions with the least joint bending possible. If anyone could be mistaken for the walking dead, it would be Spooks. Investigator Freeman, greets him.
“Hello, Lawrence, same song and dance as usual. Has the wizard shown up yet?”
“No, sir. Was just me an' the dead until you showed up.” Even his voice rasps in a way that you could easily imagine coming from someone not quite alive.
We open the coffin, and hoist the body onto a stone platform.
“No clothes? We'll have to fix that a'fore burial. You find 'im this way?”
“Yes, I thought it was odd that someone would take the time to undress a body after killing them. Hopefully it'll help us find the killer.”
“Well, I s'ppose I'll leave you to your business then. Give me a shout when you're done. Sooner they get frozen the better.”
Spooks totters off, leaving us alone with the body, for a while. We seem to have hired a loud one.
“Hello! Your master diviner had arrived!”
He bounces his way into the room, brightly colored robes contrasting sharply with the stone walls.
“So this is the errant body? Well then, let's find out what has befallen this poor fellow!”
“You can cut the act, Kristoph, there's no-one here for you to impress...” Freeman looks annoyed, and his tone engenders familiarity.
“Cut to the chase is it, my friend? Well then I shall, first I will try to speak with the departed spirit, if that fails I will see what I can gather from the body.”
Kristoph begins his arcane chant placing a crystal ball on the deceased's chest. A slight radiance issues forth from the sphere, followed by a vulgar sound and a sizable cloud of light gray smoke bursts forth. If that smoke usually had a smell, it's deadened in the mortuary. In just a few moments the smoke rises and leaves through one of the funnels in the ceiling. I'm fairly certain the spirit world just passed gas at us, master diviner indeed...
“Well, I see this is going to get complicated...” Kristoph looks both amused and disappointed at the same time.
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