The unsolved murders of Saarfik

The first murder

In the spring of 5.919, in Saarfik - a small town on the ossal coast ofthe Theolisian peninsula - a local priest was found mudered, his body marked with arcane symbols and her limbs arranged in a deliberate fashion. News of the murder spread rapidly in a community unused to violence and, ill-equipped to handle a crime as serious as murder, the village council petitioned the big city for a proper investigator. Silatuyok of Timassat was sent.
The murdered priest, Quvianuq of Saarfik, was described as "a settled incomer" - not a native of the village, but one who had moved into the community some three decades ago. When the investigator arrived, she found that Quvianuq was well-liked and his congregation was growing, possibly posing a threat to the authority of the nuklŭm, the leader of the village's traditional rituals.
Silatuyok initially pursued this line of enquiry until she discovered the bullet that killed Quvianuq, still lodged in his body. The bullet had been handled by a talin' - a type of spirit that feeds on decay, and incompatible with the magic practiced by the nuklŭm.
This revelation caused the community to fracture, with neighbours accusing each other of dealing with talin'. Silatuyok began to suspect a local nim-y-tsó-tatai (exorcist), Tapeesa of Saarfik, and her last message to her superiors states that she was working on a theory that Tapeesa was the murderer. Silatuyok believed that Tapeesa had a motive - Quvianuq had filed a petition of resolution with the village council following a serious dispute with Tapeesa and had written to the - and the means - exorcists are trained in harnessing spirits and turning them against the un-dead and evil ghosts.

The second murder

Shortly after Silatuyok wrote to her superiors, she disappeared. A few days later, following a storm, her body was found in the saltmarshes near the mouth of Qanaq creek. She had drowned before being washged out to sea. The evidence she had accumulated was found to have been in an inside pocket of her overcoat, and what remained had been destroyed by exposure to the salt, water, and mud.
Tapeesa was inside the public hall on the night of the storm, in full view of half the village and it was determined that she could not have killed Silatuyok through physical or magical means. The village council debated the event and determined it to be an accidental death: an outsider misjudging the danger of the storms and the marshes with fatal results.

An unsolved mystery

Quvianuq's congregation maintain a steadfast belief that Tapeesa murdered the priest, and that her mother - a member of the village council - killed Silatuyok to cover it up. The evidence of both deaths is believed to lie in the marshes.