Exploring in the swamp

We scouted out the area surrounding the church and discovered a number of other dead bodies. I believe that they were the bodies of bandits but they could have been merchant guards. Unfortunately I fell foul of a natural trap that sprayed me with some kind of itchy spores when I was searching a body. Disgusting. Also very itchy. We also encountered a hideous aberration known as a carrion crawler. Fortunately we were able to overcome the beast before it could kill one of us with it's poisonous tentacles. I have heard legends of these monstrocities that tell of them using their poison to incapacitate foes before devouring them. This is not something I wish to experience first hand.

Having completed our scouting as best we could it seemed only prudent to begin our exploration of the sunken church itself. The church looked derelict and appeared wholly unsafe. The tower had fallen away to lie in rubble among the trees. The tiled roof was shattered in many places and had collapsed upon itself. The swampy environs had claimed the building entirely, the ground giving way so that the church had sunk partially into a bed of reeds and unstable land, the remnants of the building leaning at such an angle that it appeared it may keel over at any given moment.

In fact, the only feature of the church to have escaped the dereliction is the entrance itself, the vast, engraved stone arch housing a pair of heavy oak doors that lay ajar as though still welcoming the pilgrim or weary traveller. What were we to do but accept this invitation and enter the formerly holy environ. I feared what we would find however.

As we began to enter I noticed how dark the entrance was as the only light seemed to be from the twilight that filtered through the trees surrounding the church. Unlike the elf that I posed as I could not see well in the dark. Fortunately Cajole came to my rescue once again. Her artificial eyes had no better night vision than my own and we decided to light our lanterns.

A continuous stream of water was running off from the elevated marsh-land that had claimed the church, sluicing down the steps and disappearing between the cracks in the stoneslabbed entry-way ahead of us. The interior of the church was much as you might expect, to judge from its ruined exterior. The roof overhead was holed in many places, and shafts of light filtered through upon the fine marble pews that sat in rank either side of the central aisle. The iron stairwell that once led up to the bell-tower overhead lay twisted and broken, leading nowhere. At the far end, beyond the fallen pulpit stood another set of iron stairs that wound down, presumably, to the church crypts. All that remained of the altar was a pile of rubble.