We spread out around the temple grounds and investigated. Chiki, Lhoss, and I (Gnorcia) each looked into the outbuildings and found them empty. Two appeared to be barracks and one a kennel for the wolves. Chiki stepped in something stinky and claimed nothing happened but we could totally smell it! We dragged the bodies into the barracks and kennels, then headed back to the main entrance of the temple.
Entering the temple, we found the foyer empty. We knew the general layout from our first visit, and venturing in a bit we saw a closed door on the southwest wall and another closed door to the southeast. Moving counterclockwise around the outside edge of the main temple chamber, we passed the southeast wall and saw yet another door on the eastern wall. Continuing around the room on the east side and we could see the dais on the northern wall, with steps leading up to the altar, housing a large jade statue of Merikka. We skirted around the altar and past two northern pillars made of the trunks of large elm trees, and headed toward the western side of the room, which also had a door. Coming back to where we began, we decided to begin searching the rooms, starting with the door on the southwest wall.
Looking in, we found the room empty except for three plain wooden benches. The western wall was actually a curtain, and Kyro and Calbach parted the curtain to reveal yet another room, softly carpeted with three comfortable-looking chairs around a small table, and a small shelf on the wall. The shelf held four bottles of unopened Orlane special red wine, and Lhoss, Calbach, Aramazi, and Gnorcia each swiped a bottle.
We went back out and opened the door on the west wall. Inside, a room extended to the north and held a large table with chairs around it, with another door on the southern wall. That door led into a tidy kitchen with ovens and a table, and cupboards full of foodstuffs. Back in the main room, we investigated the table and saw there were eight places set but not cleaned up well. There was also a handsome display case with beautiful Orlane harvest items on the western wall. Just beyond that, Lhoss noticed something: a secret door! It slid open easily and opened to the outside, near the wolf kennels.
Back in the room, we noticed yet another door on the northeast, just behind the north side wall of the main temple area, which led to a hallway. On the north side of the hallway were five doors spaced out every ten feet. Calbach opened the first door to find a cubicle with a reed prayer mat on the floor, but nothing else. When he opened the second door, someone charged out, shouting, “Intruders! You have defiled the temple!” and two more people charged out of the next two doors. They seemed to be monks and hand-to-hand combat masters! Calbach and Kyro engaged the first two and got smacked across the face, and when Calbach managed to take down one of them the third one jumped right into his place. They continued to battle and the second one went down, then finally the rest of us joined in to take out the last monk. Chiki confiscated the oversized-for-him, bloody, torn-up robes and the mats from the rooms, comically dragging them around behind him.
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