Looking at the Undead Caesare studies his opponent and grabbing an extract of longarm and drinking it.
Sonny winces at the touch of the wraith. "You foul beast! Back to the land of the dead with you!".
And Caesare will try to find out more about that beast
Ezechias' longsword cuts clean through the wraith, for a moment causing it to flicker from black-fire to the image of a little girl, a girl who looks sorrowfully up at Ezechias before fading away...
The door is soon opened. Inside, the house has been abandoned. There are still plates in cupboards and furniture sitting under a layer of dust. Upstairs, you find two bedrooms, a master and a smaller girl's bedroom. A single small window stands in the wall, closed and tightly latched 15 feet off the ground. With a little looking about, you discover that the house's outside slatted timber walls are difficult to climb and show no damage consistent with a creature the Beast's size climbing it.
From the high window, you spot movement near the top of a low hill just outside town, where a weathered scarecrow leans precariously.
"It seems those wraith was drawn to the place it died. And in any case, I should lead. I am quite adedpt at finding traps. Just guard my back."
"And with Ezechias and Sonny's prowess against undead, I guess I'm just here to look pretty." Xerice jokes.
When they come to the house Xerice notes the lack of great damage to the outside walls. "Whoever took the kids was no brute."
Looking around at Xerice Caesare just shakes his head."Dear Xerice, I fear the answer is obvious. It was not the brute... killing those children. It was a wraith. If a wraith kills something, it raises as a wraith himself. Now some undead come to unlive as punishment from the gods for lives of malice and misdeeds... but children... extremly unlikely. We will have major problems proving that in court.... but for sure we can serve justice. I fear we will face more wraiths, and one of them the master."
Leading the way, Caesare heads over toward the small hill. He stops you several times, pointing out more bear traps laid through the tall grass, perhaps there to stop a marauding flesh golem?
A rotting scarecrow leans on a scythe at the top of this low hill. Its pumpkin face is carved with a leer and a sheep’s jaw hangs flaccidly below. As you approach, the rotten pumpkin face, perhaps disturbed by your steps, falls off and the scarecrow collapses into a pile of rags and bone.
Pointing out the entrance to the cave Caesare sighs and takes a shield extract
"Looks like we are heading into the cave. Keep a look out everyone for more wraiths."
"Why can't we ever find monsters in an opera house or something nice like that?" Xerice responds with a shrug.
"Opera houses can be full of monsters, especially in Cheliax. Besides I don't think you are dressed for the opera house currently and we wouldn't want the monsters looking better than you now would we?" Sonny says with a grin at Xerice.
"Let's see what we find here." Sonny says as he follows Ezechias in.
"Reminds me of an play I saw by a wandering chelish troupe, called the seven trials of Lazod, or something like that. I can only say... go prepared and pack cold iron!"
Surpressing a shudder and hefting his spear Caesare follows leaving zanu to guard the back.
The crack of the whip sounds and Sonny feels a little burn on his left buttcheek. If he turns his face he would see an equally large grin on Xerice's face while she rerolls her whip and ties it on her belt again. "What?" she says with (even for her) very badly feigned ignorance.
The cave is not particularly deep, only a slight incline into the hill, then opening into a round room about 20 feet across. Four skeletons, all the size of small children and covered in rotting clothing, lay scattered around the floor.
From the back of the cave comes a sudden light, as if some thing with many, many glowing eyes opened them all at once. A whisper hisses "Not children, Brother Swarm. But their souls still will taste glorious!"
Initiatives!
Round 1:
27 Zanu
19 Xerice
15 Brother Swarm
14 Cireth and Caesare
4 Sonny
1 Ezechias
"Sonny I'll leave them in your capable hands."
Xerice says as she uncoils her scorpion ship and readies it.
Zanu's arcane bolts briefly illuminate the thing. It looks to be a wraith, however it seems to be comprised of eyes. Eyes that look disturbingly like the eyes of children...
The bolt strikes and harms the creature. With a woosh, the wraith launches itself at Zanu. Xerice's whip lashes out, but seems to simply pass through the creature without harming it! , but it cannot seem to touch Zanu!
After verifying that the creature is indeed undead Sonny then grabs his holy symbol "By the power and will of Sarenrae be gone and release these children's' spirits!"
Damage=20
The wraith, full of children's eyes, hisses as Sonny boldly presents his holy symbol. The holy energies seem to burn away quite a bit of the wraith's essence, causing it to wail in pain, the underlying sound one of children's laughter, as if heard from far away.
Ezechias' smite is enough to end the wraith forever, as his sword cuts deeply through the smoky form and causes it to dissolve away into the ground. For a moment all is quiet, then the spectral forms of seven children stand around you, gazing sadly at you. As one they wave and disappear.
The cave is empty of all save the skeletal remains of four children, whose corpses display no sign of any trauma at all.
"Sad sight this... I prefer the prison over this. At least they had it coming one way or another." Xerice says turning slightly reflective.
As if her own words startle her she shrugs and heads outside.
"I'll be outside once you are done in here." She calls back over her shoulder.
"I don't think we need their bodies. We should bury them, try to find where the beast was staying to see if we can find any clues there and head back to town. Once again something other than the beast was responsible." Sonny sighs, and shakes his head.
As he passes Xerice, he rubs his posterior and whispers to her, "That hurt by the way." as he grins at her.
Checking for any proof or clues, Caesare checks the cave throughoutly.
After helping to put those children to rest Caesare urges the others to return, so that he can have at least a few hours of sleep before arriving before the court next morning!
It takes about an hour to inter the bodies with proper ceremony. By the time you head back to Lepidstadt, it's nearly midnight.
"Yes, lets all sleep and recover."
"We should still pursue the owner of those tools, but that can wait till morning."
"Agreed Xerice. Agreed!"
The evening passes without incident, and you gain a full night's sleep before heading to the courthouse to register your new evidence.
Once again, the trial is packed, this time with even more people, eager to hear the grisly details. The prosecutor begins his opening speech, detailing the murders of the children of Hergstag, painting grisly details of the Beast's deeds, culminating in his being chased off by the villagers and the town abandoned.
The sisters Garrow, Starle and Flicht are called as witnesses, and tearfully recount the events, leaving out the bit where the Beast was gone when the last murder was committed. The judge lets them down and the defense is called.
Gustav looks at you and gestures for you to take the floor.
Taking a sip of water Caesare stands up. Bowing to the judge he turns around facing judge and courthouse.
"Ladies and Gentleman, Honorable Judge, we are here to talk about a crime. I apologize. Not a crime... but the most hideous crime possible. Murdering children. Defenseless children, the future of us all. The attorny has told you that 6 children are dead. That is correct! That the children were murdered. That is correct! That the murderer is a monster. This is ABSOLUTLY CORRECT! That the accused is a monster! THIS IS INCORRECT!!!!!
Taking a deep gulp of water and wiping his face Caesare continues.
You all look at him. You see a hideous creature! I can and I will not tell you that he has a beautiful face and body. But I can and will tell you, that his heart is beautiful. It took a childrens innocence to see it. And she trusted him. And they became friends. And when the REAL MURDERER took her, he... with all his might was unable to stop him.
We all know, there are terrors in the night so FOUL and EVIL that it takes the chosen of the gods to defend us from them. One of those foul creatures .... was the murderer. It was a wraith. You will ask how do we know it? We know it because it transformed the innocent child into one of his spawn... and attacked us. With the grace of saranrae and the powers bestowed on her chosen ones we liberated the world from it. But we then knew who the real murderer was and found it in his lair. It was a struggle, but Saranrae is a godess of mercy hating the unliving and she gave the will and the righteous might to her vessels and we could kill the master wraith! The real beast of Hergstag is put to trial and judged guilty and punished.
The accused is nothing... but a victim here. He trusted his strength and he was unable to defend the thing most precious to his heart..... a friend! He brought back the lifeless corpse of his friend, we found four other remains in the cave the wraith had choosen as his lair.
Testemony of 4 beautiful roses..... slain by the unliving.
You say what proof do we have. I will call the sisters to testify what kind of marks were to be found on the girl he brought back. Were there marks of strangulation, wounds, blue lips?
I will ask Sir Ezechias to testify. A Paladin of Saranrae, sworn to the truth. Sunshine, a cleric of saranrae... knowledgeable in the ways of the unliving.
And I will ask Innocence, the accused" Pointing on the beast.
Xerice prods Caesare between his rants. "Don't forget to twist those annoying sisters' nipples about the fact that the Beast was gone when the last girl died. As well as that the bodies were woundless."
I know but never burn your powder in the first round
[ooc]Waiting for someone else to say something before I do my final speech for this day.
Sisters
The sisters take the stand for your cross-examination. They look uncomfortable, but admit that the bodies that were recovered, those of Karrin and Ellsa, were unmarked. And yes, they admit that Karrin died in her home, after the Beast was driven off. And they describe the ghosts as 'child-sized.'
The Beast
When you mention Ellsa, the Beast begins to make its great rasping sobs that sound so like laughter, as its face twists into a scowl. The audience begins grumbling and you can hear the phrase "He laughs at her death!" repeated throughout the room.