The Merrin Murders

The sun was setting on the lake town of Merrin. It was the seventh night since the first murder, and people were beginning to worry. Lucias, the Cleric, had been enjoying drinks at The Foamy Pearl Inn when he'd caught wind of the rumors. The first murder had occurred seven nights previous. The man, Rohan, had been found dead in the street with stab wounds and slashes all about his body. It was unusual to find someone murdered, but not unheard of, and Rohan was a recluse, not well-known or well-liked, so nobody gave it much thought.

Three nights later, three more bodies were found, murdered in a similar fashion. Left in the streets to be found. That's when the rumors began. Whoever had been doing this had become emboldened by the first kill, and was acting more brashly. That combined with the fact that none of the victims had any apparent connection to one another had everybody speculating about the reasons behind these killings.

Lucias had heard of a similar case in a city to the West. A series of murders involving prostitutes left in alleys. They'd gone on for nearly three years, with most occurring in the first few months. As far as Lucias was aware, nobody had ever been caught for the crime, and one day they just suddenly stopped. Could it be that the same man had simply moved to a new town to continue his spree, diversifying his victims? Lucias was intrigued, but wasn't planning on staying for much longer. Killers were the realm of the town guard, and as a Cleric, he hunted supernatural evils, and as far as he could tell, there were none to be found in these parts, so he finished his drinks and retired for the night, leaving the townsfolk to gossip.

When he awoke, the town was abuzz. He joined a gathering in the square to watch as the Captain of the town guard give an announcement.

"The rumors are true," he started, "There were more murders last night. We've found nine bodies in the streets, some of them dragged from their homes." The tension in the crowd began to build, as the man continued to speak, "We have begun to notice a pattern in these killings. On the first night, one man was murdered. Three nights later, three people were killed. Three nights after that, last night, nine people were murdered. That means, that it is possible, unless we do something to stop this spree, in three nights hence, twenty-seven people may die."

The crowd grew frantic then, shouting out questions and demands.

"You need to put an end to this!"

"What good are you if you can't protect us?"

"How can one man kill so many people?"

The Captain managed to calm the crowd a bit and continued, "We believe that this is the work of multiple people working together. We are doing our very best to find and apprehend the perpetrators of this terrible tragedy. We are asking anybody who might have any information to please step forward and speak up. If anybody has any information that can lead us to an arrest, there will be a $1000 gold piece reward."

Lucias made up his mind to find the killers right then and there. One thousand gold pieces was enough for him to start his own church and train his own Clerics and Paladins to fight the forces of evil. Besides, the pattern in the killings was unusual and hinted at supernatural origins. He walked over to where the guards were taking information from the townsfolk and eavesdropped. Most of the leads were obvious dead ends or fabrications, but one man in particular, Gengrim, intrigued him.

"I seen the killin' o' ole Miss Wimsby. Ya see, she always waits 'til evenin' to bring in her laundry from th' line, an' I jus' so happened to be shuttin' me shutters when I seen it. Inhuman beast, all green-like and slimy lookin' with a long tail and a spear in its hand taller than two men. Th' killin' was quick. It moved with th' speed of a lightnin' bolt, slashin' and stabbin' her. When it was done, I seen two more appear as if outta nowhere. One of 'em looked up at me, and I shut me shutters so fast, nearly broke 'em off the hinges. I ran quick-like to me door and barred it shut. I could hear the slimy footsteps outside, and I hid with a knife in my hand. I heard it move along, but I's so scared I spent the whole night just like that, hidin' in me closet with a knife in me hands. I ain't sleep a lick."

The ignorant guard seemed dismissive of the claim, chalking it up to fancy, but Lucias was a learned man who'd studied the many kinds of supernatural entities that sometimes haunted the realms of men. This sounded like the Sahuagin, Water Devils. They were a special class of demon that were somewhere between a man, a fish, and a zombie, not quite alive and not quite dead. Another thing stuck out to him in the testimony, the fact that two more appeared after the killing. That sounded like the results of a special kind of summoning ritual that only the most wicked and spiteful kind of summoner would perform.

Lucias decided to go on his hunch and headed to the chapel. The library inside was bound to have information on this particular breed of devil. It was the nicest building in town. The people of Merrin were religious folk and took good care of their main chapel and its library. The ceilings were high and the books were neatly stacked and arranged in an intuitive way. Unfortunately, there were none on demonology, so Lucian was out of luck. They weren't a very superstitious people, and most of their books were based on morality and history. It was too bad since supernatural beings had been more active in the realms of men lately, and these people were clearly ignorant of the truth. He sighed and decided to follow his second hunch.

Lucias approached the lake shore and decided to have a look around. He figured if there were Sahuagin around, they would be spending their time in the lake. They were aquatic demons, and they lived in water and could control sea life telekinetically. Again, his search was fruitless, and having spent the majority of his day trying to find a book at the library, and then footprints or any other evidence at the lake shore, he found that the sun was setting and decided to retire. If the predictions were correct, He still had two days to figure out the truth, and if his hunch was correct, he was closer to the truth than anybody.

After a restless night of sleeping, Lucias decided to follow his only viable lead, the man whose testimony he had heard, Gengrim. After asking around, he discovered that Gengrim was one of the two carpenters that had a shop around Merrin. He wasn't very difficult to find.

"Mr. Gengrim, how does this day find you?" Lucias greeted.

"Well, sir. How is it that I can help?" Gengrim replied.

"I had some questions for you if you have the time."

"About me wares?" Gengrim noticed Lucias's Clergy insignia sewn onto his coat, "Ah, about the murder, I spose?"

Lucias began questioning the carpenter about the details of the night. He wanted to be thorough, any detail could help. He had begun developing a theory based on what he heard, and in his restless night of tossing and turning, he'd remembered an important detail about the type of ritual he believed had been performed to summon the demon. The summoning could make more demons appear with each murder, but each demon had to get a contract to kill someone else within the hour to remain within this realm. They were willing to use all sorts of treachery to achieve their goals. The realm of demons was unpleasant, even for them. They much preferred building a kingdom in the realm of men.

"This devil that approached your home, did it say anything to you?"

Gengrim scratched at his nose and looked down at his feet, "No sir, not a word. See, I was locked in me home and it couldn't get in."

Lucias scrutinized the carpenter, "You know what this insignia means, do you not?"

"Aye sir, I do know that," Gengrim said nervously.

"Then you know I've been granted special favor of the gods?" Lucias said, standing taller.

"Aye," Gengrim began fidgeting.

Lucias snapped his fingers and a holy white light appeared above his hand. It was a simple spell of healing, but the carpenter likely wouldn't know one spell from another, "I've been granted the gift of knowing when somebody is lying." Gengrim remained silent, continuing to fidget, "And I can tell that you're lying," Lucias let the light fade.

"Forgive me, sir. Please. I din't have a choice. He threatened me Isabella!"

"Tell me what the demon said, Gengrim," Lucias said more gently.

"It never came in me house, that's true. But, it did call out to me. It seemed to know me. It said I had t' give it a name o' someone f'r it t' kill or it'd kill me sweet daughter, Isabella! I was so scared, I din't think. I jus' gave it th' name of me rival in town, Namuk, the other carpenter. I had to save her, ya understand?" Gengrim had tears running down his red face, he was pleading with Lucias not to punish him for being weak.

Lucias took pity on the man. All men had folly in one way or another, none were perfect. "Tell me where your home is."

Following Gengrim's instructions, Lucias found himself at the house of the woman who'd been murdered, Miss Wimsby. The guard was there, investigating, and upon seeing Lucias's Clergy insignia, welcomed him to have a look around. He found nothing unusual and instead asked the guards if they knew anything of the victim. One of them knew her. There had been complaints about her drinking too much at the tavern and picking fights with the men. Most ignored her, but a few nights before she died, a man took her up on her offer, and she proceeded to whoop the tar out of him. Lucias asked the man's name and was pointed toward the home of Avar, on the South end of town.

He found the man at home, still nursing a broken nose and two black eyes, though most of the swelling had gone down, he had still clearly been beaten to a pulp. Seeing the Cleric at his door, he was very welcoming, though his demeanor changed when Lucias began asking questions about the Sahuagin. He began to clam up and cross his arms across his chest. His answers became terse, until Lucias offered to heal his wounds.

"I might have seen something like that," he said.

"And you gave it Miss Wimsby's name?"

Avar hung his head in shame, "Yes, sir. But," he looked up with tears in his eyes, "I didn't know what would happen. I honestly don't remember most of that night. I was drunker than a fish in a barrel of ale. I wasn't thinking straight, mister. I feel so ashamed of what I did," he began to sob, "She didn't deserve to die, not like that."

Lucias healed the man's wounds as he had promised and made his way back to The Foamy Pearl Inn. Night was creeping up, and he'd gotten closer to solving this problem.

Another restless night left Lucias tired, but he'd remembered something else. He needed to find the person who'd ordered the first murder. That would be the person who'd summoned the first demon. If he could kill the summoner responsible, the spell would be broken.

He decided to ask around about the first victim, Rohan. It turned out that he had a sort of bitter rivalry with another man in town, Liam Evizir. He went to Liam's home but nobody answered when he knocked. He searched the property and found a shed in the back, unlocked. When he opened it, he found it filled with wicked symbols of necromancy, black candles, pentagrams, and a bookshelf filled with books of evil magic. He began casting holy blessings upon the artifacts in the shed, canceling their wicked energies. As he was doing so, Liam found him.

Liam struck swiftly with black magic, knocking Lucias against the back wall of the shed. He charged the fallen man, but Lucias regained his feet and cast a spell of protection on himself. Liam's attacks bounced harmlessly off, but Lucias could not maintain the shield forever, and Liam's attacks were relentless. Lucias summoned his strength and blasted Liam with holy light, sending him stumbling; however, Liam had the stronger magic. He cast a spell of darkness over Lucias that knocked him completely unconscious.

Lucias awoke, tied down in the yard, the fence and trees bordering the property obscured any prying eyes from seeing within. He was gagged and could not move. Night was upon the town and he knew he had failed in his mission. Liam was standing over him, grinning.

"Stay here, my little toy. I need to procure some salt from the lake. I've never resurrected a fresh body before. I want to see how your soul tastes. The moon has almost fully crested in the sky. Soon you will be mine completely." With that, the necromancer left.

Lucias struggled against his bonds, but it was no use. They cut into his flesh, drawing blood, and he was overly tired, the spell that put him out still lingered in his mind.

Wet footsteps approached. Lucias struggled to see in the darkness, but could only look straight up at the cresting moon. He dreaded the sound as each step got louder, imagining the necromancer coming to finish him off, resurrecting his body in a grotesque mockery of life. A shadow loomed over him, but it was not Liam, it smelled overwhelmingly of rotting fish. It was the face of a Sahuagin. With a clawed, scaly hand, it reached down and removed his gag.

"Give me a name," the guttural voice demanded, "or I shall end your life now."

Lucias knew it was a lie. This demon could not hurt him unless his name had been given to it. He almost thought to ignore it, letting it vanish back into its own realm, but an idea struck him.

"Liam Evizir is the name I give you. Strike him down."

The Sahuagin replaced his gag and moved along. Lucias remained to ponder his own fate and that of the town.

When Liam returned, Lucias died knowing he'd done all he could, and that in three more nights, the town's curse would finally be lifted, and the necromancer would be gone from this world.