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I be damn again. It seem that more than one mercenary died here. There is another body at the alter. They bears the same raven mark so they most be from the same group but this one is really.. strange. Way more than the one in the cemetery. Maybe this one is their leader or something like that? It would make seance as he have a more hum, fancy type of clothing. He is wearing a long black cloak with raven feathers on the shoulders and a mask that also represented a raven but most importantly , he doesn’t show any trace of decomposition. He do have a necrotic aura around him, so maybe a spell? I don’t know any spell that can conserve a body like that, but with that say. My knowledge in necrotic spell is very little. I should check with a mage about that.
In fact, he was so well preserve that when I saw him, I thought he was sleeping! After all, from afar, I could not see anything special on his body. No features that reminded me of a fight and his sit position made me think more of resting, or sleeping than anything else. However, once I got a little closer, enough to touch him. It was clear that this person had passed away some time ago without visible reason which is unique since the first one was quite easy to understand. Open a trapped door, spell, boo, died, end of story. But this one on the other hand, is a lot more.. strange. The altar had been stained by his blood, Is I understand the bloody dagger laying in the grass , and he as an unhealed wound in his left palms. I don’t know why he did it, but because he write the words “Heresy”, “Lie” and “Blasphemy”, it most has a religious reason
There also the other strange symbol.. I have noted them, but I don’t really know what to do with them, I don’t know allot about religion.
Even after I reread myself, I truly do not know what to get from this scene. The only magic here is the one on the body and yet, this doesn’t make sense. I have no other choice that to visit the other altar on my road. It should help me make understand what happen here.
Otherwise, the man didn’t have much that was particularly notable that I haven’t already noted above. Thanks to the thing that stop he decomposition, I was able the analyses way more than the first one. He was an old blue jay with a very skinny and obviously fragile body. I imagine he must have been a little after fifty, possibly close to sixty when he died. It’s amazing to see a person of that age with a group of bandits, but the lure of treasure is ageless I guess. He must have been the elder of the group. Maybe not the leader as I initially thought as those kind of group prefer young and strong leader but he could have a been an advisor for the group. But whoever he was, they didn’t take the time to take his valuable. He still have some useful items. Two scrolls to remove curses and one to restore lost vigour as well. They will be very useful to me if there is more trap in the village.

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Finally at the other alter and it is in a perfect condition. No body, no blood, no symbol. Only the old stone and the bowl of ash right in the middle. Maybe he died before making it here but how? Not like that little cut could have caused his death, except if the strange marking are for a ritual. There is a really strong divination aura around the second alter but nothing at the first. One. So he seem that he indeed did something to he alter, other that profane it of course... Did the ritual fail and killed him? Don’t think, The first one did lost his magic, so he surely have succeed in his endeavour. Sacrifice maybe? He know he would died doing it. That could be it, but it still strange and a bit stupid. Why killing yourself to remove the magic of an extremely old and use alter in the middle of nowhere.. What did I find in here..

Nevertheless, I still have a piece of the mercenary’s map to search before drawing any more conclusions. The area at the edge of the forest outside the city. If this is indeed their camp as I think it is. There good chance that there will be more information and hopefully other resources that could be of use to me.

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