Hollows Beneath the Cult Shrine

After dispatching a lone cultist guarding a ruined shrine, a vampire spawn that had recently fed, and a lingering shadow that clung to the northern corridor, the party finds a scattered, grim collection of spoils. The cultist's robes and ritual scrap hint at further descent into the shrine. The vampire spawn carried a silvered blade and a small pouch of coin along with a strangely humming +1 dagger that reacts to blood, while the shadow left behind a cold, tarlike residue valued by alchemists and ritualists. Practical items such as a Potion of Healing and a 1st-level spell scroll will mend wounds and give the party options before they press deeper. A modest onyx and a vial of cult-blood may fetch a jeweler or a sage, or be useful in future investigations into the shrine's dark rites.