Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: D is for Dread

[alhoon]

Demon Marilith (take 2, more gore than horror)

"Again questioning of any of the four survivors of the massacre brought no results. It's been 16 days now since the remains of the merchant train were discovered by the patrol. Still, the four survivor's mad ramblings make no sense at all, even after they were administered by a local priest named Benalion that claims he can call the power of the Gods. He was indeed able to miracusly heal many of their wounds so Benalion must be saying the truth. However he said there was nothing he could do about their minds.

We need to find who did that massacre. The lycanthropes? Perhaps. However the wounds on many of the bodies were made by cutting instruments although others seemed to be crushed as if a huge constrictor crushed them. Yet it seemed some caution was taken for many of the victims to not die of their wounds. I shudder to think of the state we found many of the victims; their suffering seems to have been prolonged for hours after their arms and legs were cut off. What twisted mind could have brought so much suffering to living beings and leave the valuables lying around?

We can always put the blame on a vistani curse to dissuade the local people; Invidians seem ready to blame everything on the vistani. However, I'm not sure the boy lord would be so easily convinced. Perhaps the walking dead? They harbor a hate for the living. But why would they let anyone alive after all?

All the four could do, those that still had their tongues, was to mourn pitifully. Their resemblance to some of the tortured that were still indentifiable was evident. But would the living dead recognise parent and child or siblings through physical resemblance? Would they care?

One word the survivors keep repeating when they can be made to talk: "Marilith" among mad ramblings about a multiple swords slashing, a huge snake-woman and other, more unerving things they witnessed that creature doing, some of which still turn my stomach. It seems that all of them agree it was a single, huge creature. I can discard their rumblings about multiple hands as born out of their fear, but from my experience when dealing with panicked, griefstriken, mentally unsettled peasants, they increase the number of assailants, don't decrease it; "an army" is usually less than 10.

Marilith... I've never in my adventures, travels and investigations heard of anything like that. A big snake woman with supernatural abilities and inhuman strength. How could all of them remember and even repeat that name? Did the creature forced them to memorize it? If so, why?"

- A page of the journal of late investigator and adventurer Bornic Hald, found pinned on his savaged body, near the broken holy symbol of Ezra, belonging to the missing cleric Benalion.