May be (???) Shadowheart killed them with her patron god magic because she is a chosen of Shar??? I think it is good to leave some things for player interpretation. There is some category of very sensitive players who can get pushed back by some extremely mundane stuff. Always seems weird to me - to question the plot like that. People are fallible, their motivations sometimes unclear and unpredictable. We are used to archetypical characters and idealistic models. I am no perfect judge of character but I enjoy every companion in a unique way and don't find anything too much out of place. The only exception is companions not sticking to their own origin, it could be cool to see the party being "split" in halves, like Laezel and Wyll leaving the party to take a creche route. To have more leaders to the party and mb even character development, under certain circumstances, into a leader by even the most dependant of characters. As of now it feels like Tav is the centre of the world. But that might be an unpopular opinion.
It's called fleshing out the story. You give reasons why things happened so it all makes sense.
I'm thinking of Thumb Wars. Princess Bunhead shows up by the falcon and says, "I escaped somehow.". It was making fun of stories that don't get properly fleshed out. It's called good story writing. Things are supposed to make sense.
Besides, I think it would be cool and would really set up the ambiance of the entire Beach area if you are able to investigate the corpses and find signs of what happened. Slash marks on this body indicating this person was killed by a creature. Spear wounds indicating one fisherman with a spear killed another. Why? Body Thief. One devourer took him over and attacked another. But the player doesn't know this unless they succeed in a Investigation check.
Stuff like that causes players' imaginations to run wild. What are they about to face?
