Tekeli-Li

The Family of Graced Water - P1

A longstanding and extremely secretive group, the family of graced waters ( hereby referred to as the family) is a highly mobile collective built as a cult of personality to the leadership, and comparable to a far slower-acting doomsday cult.

Operating a myriad of disguises tailored to their destinations, the family has taken the guise of almost everything from a travelling circus to merchants, healers, and even travelling clergy, depending on their requirements. How they undergo the latter disguises, given their general modus operandi, and possible allegiances are a matter of troubling speculation.

What is known to me is that the family do not offer allegiance to any gods or any pantheons that I have been able to research, partly because any investigation into this matter so far has resulted in the attempted detaining and burning of no less than four of my personas and a need to swiftly flee.

It seems that the family has managed to utilise this mindset to achieve their secretive status, a disturbing notion if correct. Whilst I do not yet know who or what the family ultimately serves, I believe I have found some evidence of both purpose and delivery. I believe they may be a sort of play cult, using their travels across the central continent and beyond to collect experiments, cultivate and possibly mutate obscure and outright supernatural diseases and contagions.

I have thus far encountered only one such example of work to add credence to my theory, hidden beautifully within the recent horrors unleashed by the Elder Being Nox.

Recently, a hamlet was burnt to the ground by the local clergy in Tir's southern coast prior to my arrival, naturally disguised in one of my older forms. The risen dead there were long put to the sword and torch. However, what has been discounted by the brave clergy is that upon closer examination during the post-mortem exam of some of the first reported undead, the nervous tissues, especially the spinal cord and medulla, still generated an abnormal amount of electrical activity that is normally only seen in subjects briefly after death. Before finally disposing of the subjects, I also noted several odd growths throughout some of the remaining nerve tissue I was able to expose, including evidence of tissues fusing and seemingly emerging throughout otherwise healthy tissue.

Meanwhile, I have discovered the curious remains of a small, lesser catfolk hidden in a shallow grave close to the river bed, just upstream of the hamlet proper.

The body, upon examination, appears to have been buried pre-mortem, as evidenced by dirt built up under the claws, which themselves were blunted and broken, and traces of topsoil in their mouth, which suggests that they may have struggled for breath while being buried.

The more concerning part, however, is the manner of death. Whilst the live burial suggests suffocation as the cause, closer inspection has revealed numerous holes throughout their body that are largely hidden by dense fur. Despite the apparent number of wounds, however, blood loss appears to have been surprisingly limited. Upon internal examination, I have discovered a large section of the nervous system appears to be absent from the remains, but no evidence of any medical procedures of any kind being performed on the subject, aside from the one I have carried out myself. Between this discovery, the location of the body's state and placement and the odds tumour-like growths that I discovered on the residents that I have originally considered to be

An internal problem with their own nervous systems, I grow increasingly concerned as to the state of the remaining bodies and any potential survivors from the hamlet that have not yet been accounted for.