Church's Devil

Militia File 10.52 : Sarlin Church
- Crime scene; Gartin avenue, July 4th 1012. Soldier Vernes reporting.

Acting on reports of a scream heard in Gartin Avenue on July the fourth, Myself and my partner, Garner, went to investigate. The scream was reported to be of a male, and heard in the vicinity of a side-alley between two residential houses. Upon studying the side alley, Massive amounts of blood was discovered on the dirt road. No body was evident, and the only other object out of place was a silver bracelet with a symbol of a crucifix on it. To further our investigation, we decided to look into the local church.

- Church of the Faith, July 4th 1012. Soldier Vernes reporting.

Furthering the possible murder in Gartin Avenue, we went to the Church of the Faith to speak with the high priest there: Sarlin Church. All the townsfolk know of Sarlin Church, they speak of him as a visionary; a true saint. He had worked his way up from nothing, and it is said his sermons bring a fire in the souls of the listeners. He is also the person who has settled the debate between Religion and the formerly blasphemous ‘magic', bieng a mage himself.
Mr. Church was more than happy to offer information. He told us the bracelet he found was one of the bracelets he gives to all devout followers of the church. He provided us with a list of people who currently owned those bracelets. Our next move is to investigate all of these people.

-Click- The door of the unused basement beneath the church swung shut and was locked. The tapping of footsteps echoed loudly through the hall, and Sarlin Church entered the cell room. There, chained to the wall by metal spikes which were rammed midway through its forearms, was a body. Or half a body, to be more specific: Instead of legs, the corpse ended at the waist. Over its head was a large horned helmet with a cross-visor, and slung over its neck was a long, thick chain-necklace draping a little lower than the cadavers body, a large metal crucifix hanging on the end of it. No other clothing was on it, and it was obvious that the corpse had been there a while - skin was decaying slowly from the flesh, and red, raw muscle was beginning to show through. Abruptly, this corpse moved, stiffening violently when Sarlin entered the room.

'Oh! You're awake? Good. I wouldn't want you to miss this one. After all, I know how much you hate pain.' Sarlin smiled priestly, and walked towards the hanging corpse, stopping just two feet away.
'I have a gift for you. It was given to me last night - Tonight is the night that you see.' Sarlin raised his hands - bloodsoaked hands - and in them lay a pair of lifeless eyes. The faint, crimson glow of magic surrounded these organs, and the high priest forced those eyes through the cross-visor of the helm and into where the corpses sockets should be. As those eyes were melted into that head, the body spasmed violently, as though writhing in agony. When it was done, the eyes lay lifeless beneath the metal for several seconds, before suddenly swivelling and focusing on the priest.
'And now you see your creator. Tonight is a special night for you! I have another gift to give you. These were not easy for a priest to get without having a few eyebrows raised.'
Sarlin raised a pair of heavy metal gauntlets into the corpses new vision - instead of fingertips though, the gauntlets ended in four-inch long claws. After carefully sliding the gauntlets on the emaciated hands of the cadaver, the glow of magic shone once again and the metal of those gauntlets began to glow red-hot. Once more, the corpse flailed in pain as the metal seared through flesh and molded with the muscles of its hands. The priest watched calmly as the creature jerked and writhed, and when it finally calmed down, Sarlin smiled once more, 'Why do you fight the pain? You are not human - though I know you think you are - so I do not understand why you think to act like it. No matter. Soon, you will be complete. Then I will preach to this town about the REAL devil.' The sound of footsteps faded from the room, and the door clicked shut once more. Silence reigned, and alone, the body on the wall lowered its head, spasming occasionally as though it were silently weeping.

- Gartin Avenue, July 5th 1012. Soldier Vernes reporting.

After cross-checking all of the names on the list we had of the bracelet owners, we determined that none of the people could have been either the victims or the killers - they all had alibi's. Because of this, Myself and Garner decided to patrol Gartin Avenue for the night to see if there would be any reoccurances. At approximately 2:15am we heard a cry for help inside a house which was quickly silenced. We burst our way into the house to come across the High Priest Sarlin, kneeling over a corpse of a man and - using a hatchet - methodically hacking off the man's left leg from the upper thigh. Upon seeing us, he growled and leapt up, running at us with the weapon. We were forced to kill him.
Further investigations found the bodies of no less than eight other men, buried in unregistered graves in the graveyard of the Church of the Faith. Each of these men had certain body parts removed. What the deranged priest was using the parts for remains a mystery.

Case closed.

Militia File 10.94 : Sarlin Church copycat March 14th, 1014

The bodies of several men have been found, murdered and body parts removed from them recently. Searching through our records, we found the case of Sarlin Church similar. We believe the murders to be the work of a serial murderer who had heard of Sarlin Church and is copying his style. So far, no leads have been found.

Additional Information
After Sarlin Church was apprehended, the patchwork golem which he was working on was left, unused and for several years. In the forgotten cellar of the church it waited, hanging in agony, until eventually the spikes thrust into the creatures forearms which held it to the wall weakened, and it was able to wrench itself free. Without legs, however, it had to crawl itself to the door, picking the lock with it's clawed gauntlets and escaping into the city undetected. Though there are powerful magics sustaining its body, Church's Devil is made out of dead body parts, and as such will decompose over time. So, since its, it has been continuing its creators work - Slaying people and stealing body parts to replenish its own limbs as they die and decay to nothing. It never thinks to add legs to its design, believing that it was completed by its creator by the time it escaped. If it isn't able to make kills and transfer body parts, the golem will eventually erode to skeleton - however the magic surrounding it will allow it to move without muscle tissue - it can survive for nearly four years without requiring additional body parts. Additionally, The magic will protect its core - which is the human brain and head beneath that visored helm. His head will never decompose while it is ‘alive'.

Although the Golem cannot speak, it is moderately intelligent, and can understand human language. Dispite its lack of legs, it is able to move quite quickly, and can even climb smooth surfaces with those clawed gauntlets. It IS aware that what it is doing by killing people is ‘wrong', but also knows that if it does not replenish itself, it will eventually die.
The golem can feel pain, although it does have a decent threshold of tolerance for it, after how it was created. Any limbs cut off it, or anything done to its torso will not kill it - the only way to do so is to destroy the brain beneath that heavy metal helm.
Although it may be able to be reasoned with to an extent, people will find it difficult to converse with an apparantly undead creature with half a body, clawing its way ominously towards them. Church's devil is motivated by survival, and that is all it wishes to do: Survive.