"Aye, that might be a bad thing to some of us." Lyssia adds with a smile, "Though I'd more like to know the deal with the arrow heads and fan. If it's not too much an inprosition, I'd like to suggest that we use the material weath to see about putting the marked graves back to rights, I'm sure a couple churchs in the area could use the weath to such a cause." glances at the undead bodies. "And mayhap put the undead we fought here back to rightful rest as well."
Darren eyes the pile of valuables and a back corner of his mind starts tallying the total value, figuring special demand for certain gems or styles, subtracting for the fence's cut...Old habits die hard. But before, Darren would have seen the total in terms of fine wine, protection money, women, parties, excess. Now he sees children with clothes and families with food, churches with new roofs. New habits are stronger. Darren turns from the glittering pile and sees to arranging the former undead on the carts. As he does so, he sings under his breath a song of Lliira, a funeral song, but one that celebrates a fine life that has come to a fine end, rather than lamenting the inevitable death.
*Darren arranges the former undead on the worst damaged cart, and if he desires, can set flame to it to consume their rotting corpses. It takes a couple of hours for the worst of the fire to die down, and eventually you can dig up some dirt to pour on the ashes to smother the last of the flames to avoid a fire. You can take the remaining two wagons and the six horses along with you if you desire. The horses had blinders on, and some kind of strong-smelling herbs rubbed under their noses to keep them from balking at transporting the death wagons.*
*If you follow Sylinda's lead to the clearing, you find a lush mulberry bush sitting proudly at the north end. A small stone marker indeed indicates that this is one of Low'verok's small gods and that it does have a fancy for music. The aura in the clearing is one of serenity.*
*Does anyone try to appease the god before making camp?*
*As the party enters the clearing, Norin takes his old sandals off, silently walks to northeastern corner and bows near the bush murmuring a prayer of thanks to the small god for the peace that springs from his haven, and asking for the hospitality of a night for a party of servants of the light that have to care about a fallen comrade.*
"I have only a little song to offer, the one that my good friend and master Xanthos sang to me to teach me how to conquer my inner fears when I was but a child."
*Norin, used to long silences, has not a steady voice, but the warmth that permeated the original song can still be felt. In the graceful tongue of the angels, the simple words hide a precious teaching: when fear infuriates all around your mind like a stormy ocean, dive deep into the waters, where your soul lies, and there you will find silence and calm, for if you are true to your soul, the storm can't reach it.*
*After the song, Norin steps back, leaving room for anyone else who'd like to try to please the god, and takes care of Sebastian's body, removing his armor and softly cleaning the burns he got during the combat, all the while praying to Heironeus to give strenght to his tortured soul, so that it won't succumb to the evil he saw in the dead eyes of the bodaks before Nessa can call him back to life, where his mission of justice awaits him.*
*Then after this service to the body of his fellow, he looks at the others to see if the cares of the day weigh heavily upon their shoulders.*
"The procession was probably expected somewhere. Should we wait for the ones that will surely come to find out what happened of it, or go on with our mission? Either way, I think it would be wise on our part to hide our trail, though I have no experience in that. And as much as I would like to help a church in need and assure those poor souls a good rest, we may put the priest in danger. Maybe we'd better gave them what couldn't be tracked back to these demons and hide the rest, so we could retrieve it and put it to good use on our way back."
Lyssia waits for the quiet monk to finish his little song before following suite with a soft trilling melody in Elvish that is a well known lullabye sang for children. As she finishes she gives the shrine a short bow and settles down by her pack and starts attending gear.
"I personally am of two minds on this.. one part wants to wait and investigate for other groups, perhaps even end this abomination that is being done." she says as she cleans her blade with quick sure motions. "And the other tells me that the task at hand will serve a greater good and we could investigate on our return or mayhaps even task others at local temples to do so while we are gone. I don't like leaving things undone." smiles with wry humor. "which is the trait that got me in the unique fix of being the only goodly being of my people."
*As Saint Norin sings, the mulberry bush seems to sway slightly in time with the song, and when it is over, it rustles its branches appreciatively, or what that the wind? A feeling of peace comes over you, and you can tell you've appeased the god.*
*Laying out your plan to the others, you get several nods.*
"If someone is expecting this caravan, then perhaps we would do best to travel in stealth from now on," Staeven says, "Our original goal is the Baroness, and I have the sinking feeling that perhaps that caravan was bound for her estates. She is known to traffic in the undead, and I recognized those demons as those who feed on the dead. We should not tip our hand any more than necessary by charging right up to her front gates, waving our swords."
"And for the items that might attract attention... I say we will have to keep the death mask, the decorative sheild, the ivory statue, the dismantled scepter, the harp, and the minature knight, as well as all the magical items. Those are the ones that could be traced the easiest if they hit the market," Daren offers, his mispent former habits coming to the rescue.
*Assuming you spend the rest of the evening examining the magic items to see if you can figure out what they do, a few things come to light. Daren recognizes with a start that the magical pearl earrings are nothing less that healing song pearls, capable of healing the nearly-dead, regenerating limbs, or even bringin the dead back to life.*
*Lyssia takes a closer look at the arrowheads, and questions Daren about where he found them. Judging from how they were in the coffin, and how they had shreads of clothing stuck to them, Lyssia thinks she recognizes them. They are probably slaying arrows. Since they were in the devourer's coffin, Lyssia decides to take a stab that they were probably meant to kill monstrous humanoids, or maybe giants.*
*Nessa takes a look at the doll and has a sudden memory of one of her fellow wizards making a protecting golem. It is very likely the doll is some kind of specialized construct. A thorough search of the doll turns up a tiny necklace that has several words written on it.*
*In addition, a check of the jeweled, feathered fan reveals that the magic on it is probably to preserve the feathers from rotting. The calendar disk may be some kind of divination device, probably used to keep track of holy days for whichever religion created it.*
*Of the chaotic idol you still have no idea, but everyone becomes less and less inclined to pick it up or even touch it as the night goes on. It's just extremely unnerving.*
*The golden ball no one is quite sure of, but maybe if you opened it up and looked inside you could figure out what it is.*
*The night passes fairly uneventfully, aside from your studies. Apparently the mulberry god does not book any nonsense in his domain. In the early morning Nessa can awaken and prepare her spell to bring Sebastion back from the darkness in which he wanders. She extolls Boccob, listing the virtues of the warrior whose soul she is trying to reclaim, and how is presense would help Him rid the world of the vile and evil magic that taints others' view of their sacred Craft. The beautiful diamond in her hands glows brightly as she makes her impassioned plea.*
*Sebastion
you've been floating in darkness, a place neither of goodness nor of evil. Yet despite this place that has no ground or sky, no sun or wind, you've been feeling a steadily-creeping cold, a cold hand of corruption that keeps trying to clutch around your heart. You keep pushing it away, keeping it out of your mind, but it has become very hard, and you're getting tired. Suddenly there's a light in the darkness, a long tunnel that seems to lead to a green clearing very far away. You hear a voice, Nessa's, calling you.
"Sebastion, come back to us, please," she asks. You know it truly is Nessa, and that she is invoking Boccob's magic to bring you back from death.
But you are tired, mortally tired, and for a moment look back at the darkness around you. In front of you you see a curious sight, three meadows side-by-side. One meadow is a riot of flowers and butterflies, with sunshine pours down on it. One is the same meadow in autumn on an overcast, drizzly day, the colors muted and everything dead, but the promise of new life waiting in the spring. The third is of the medow after it has been ravaged by war, the grass splashed with blood, the sky lit with flames, the bodies of the fallen littering the grass.
In the autumn meadow stands a woman carrying a baby, a toddler at her side. She has a white rose in one hand. Miranda looks at you with a sad smile, not her bright one of life or the twisted mockery of her undead state. Eloise looks at you with wide eyes, and Estefan turns toward you. Miranda looks to to the sunlit meadow, and suddenly you see yourself, as you are in life, standing at Aerofax's side, pale but alive. As she watches this she smiles, and the autumn meadow in which she stands seems to take on some of the bright sunshine.
Then you fade from view and she turns her gaze to the war-torn meadow. Here you see yourself lying amongst the dead, and slowly, inexorably, your skin taking on the pale gray of the undead, and your eyes becoming the white orbs of death of the creature that killed you. As Miranda watches this her meadow seems to take on the glow of the hellish flames.
Then she turns and looks back at you, a tremulous smile on her lips, as Nessa's voice breaks into your vision.
*
"Sebastion, Sebastion, please come back to us!" Nessa cries, the diamond in her hands glowing like a young sun.
Sebastian is dumbfounded. He has not seen Miranda in five years, and even now cannot believe his eyes. He moves to touch hopestone, but it is not here in this realm.
Sebastian's heart is torn as looks away from Miranda and his children. "No, not yet," he says, "I will not rest... not until they are free. I will not watch them in bondage!" He turns toward the light.
He runs. He must get back to the place he was before. Though dark and dreary, and though he be a dead man walking, life in the living realm offers a pale chance at victory. "Though I must die a million times... I will not stop. Not until I have won my Miranda. Not until I have destroyed Druvei!" He pushes through the darkness towards the long, bright tunnel.
*With a gasp, the light from Nessa's diamond bursts into rainbow brilliance as the diamond powders into nothingness. Sebastion suddenly lurches half-upright, as if his soul slammed into his body with such force that it flung him from the ground. He gives a gasp as air flows into lungs once still, and blood again flows through his veins. He feels a great deal colder and weaker than he did the last time he was alive, but he is decidedly, completely, without a doubt, back amongst the living.*
*Aerofax has been at your side during the entire process, and she protectively lays one of her wings over you, nuzzling you gently.*
"Welcome back Sebastion." Nessa says warmly, quickly hugging the paladin.
*She steps back to give him room, and silently thanks Boccob for interceding in Sebastion's return. Given that this is the first time she's had cause to call a soul back from death, she's a little overwhelmed by the magical feat she's just performed.*
