The weather is brisk and clouds move sluggishly across the sky, blocking the sunlight enough to cast a light just dim enough to match the mood.
Kendra stands stern faced over the coffin containing the body of her father, Professor Lorrimor. Her eyes are red and puffy, but her face betrays no emotion. Her mouth twists as she looks out at you all, but only for a moment.
"You came. None of the other invitees have. I suspect that they are all dead by now. Else some other ill fate has fallen over them so they cannot respond."
She lets the sentence hang in the air for a moment before continuing.
"Not that it's that much of a surprise, with the way things are in town these days."
Quickly changing the subject, she gestures with one hand down the path towards the cemetery.
"Father Grimburrow is waiting with the gravediggers down the way. As no one else has arrived, would you mind terribly acting as pallbearers?"
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Trilly nods, hat in hand, looking solemnly at the casket in front of her. It seems wrong to her, somehow, that the casket sits above the ground- not something amoral, but something displaced.
"Of course we will."
Trilly tries to sound sure of herself- confident in the generosity of her party, even, but her voice wavers slightly. She's going to miss Lorrimor.
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Irene reads Kendra's face as she talks to them. She holds her parasol above her head regardless of the fact that it is neither sunny enough nor raining currently, this way no one can really see her face and therefore not see that she is crying. Irene takes a moment to gather herself as she listens to Kendra and the others talk about carrying the coffin.
"I see no problem in being the pallbearers and helping out but I think the size difference may be cause for concern."
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Maeve puts her hand on Trilly's shoulder and gives it a light squeeze and musters a small smile. She knows Trilly is upset and wants to comfort her. She tries to be strong even though she feels sad about Lorrimor's passing and the fact that no one else has shown up for him.
"It would be an honor, Kendra. Irene, perhaps you could walk with Kendra and keep her under the parasol with you just in case it rains while we're on the way?"
Regina chokes on a tear, her eyes darting away when Kendra muffles her pain. Her ability to steel herself against the coldness of the world is something that Regina has often admired, but whitnessing it today sits heavy in her throat.
"Of course" she manages to squeak out.
Bruce looks around solemnly at the small people around him, and then at the coffin containing Professor Lorrimor's body. He did not know the Professor except for a chance meeting in which he saved the Professor's life. Still he was grieved, and wished that he had been around a second time to save it again. He nodded at Kendra and grunted an affirmative sound. He would try to take the brunt of the coffin's weight as they walked.
Kendra nods appreciatively at each of you, opens her mouth to speak. Whatever she was going to say, she thinks better of it and her mouth becomes a grim and silent line. She turns, wipes a tear from each eye, straightens her posture and silently begins walking ahead of the coffin into the field of crypts and low tombstones.
The wrought iron fence which surrounds sprawling graveyard is capped with decorative, but still somewhat functional spikes. The wooden sign hanging over the entrance gate reads "The Restlands". The graveyard itself is larger than some villages, with dozens of mausoleums and crypts, and hundreds, if not thousands of gravestones spreading out in over the hill in front of you. The road into the graveyard forks after a moment and a sign marking the crossroads indicates you are at the intersection of Ancestor's Walk and The Dreamwake. Kendra gestures you gently to turn left onto The Dreamwake.
As your motley procession rounds a bend along the Dreamwake, you see about a dozen people positioned so as to block your path, and they look angry.
One of them steps forward, a man some of you will recognize as Gibs Hephenus, an ex-soldier turned farmer. "That's far enough. We've been talking, and we don't want Lorrimor buried here in the Restlands. You can take him upriver and bury him there if you want, but he ain't goin' to taint our ground here!"
All of Kendra's stoicism swiftly gives way to anger. What are you talking about? I've arranged all of this with Father Grimburrow! They've already dug out the..."
"You don't get it, do you woman? We won't have a necromancer buried in the same place as our kin. I suggest you move him out, while you still can."
The implied threat crushed the last of Kendra's patience. "Necromancy!? Are you really that f~%!ing ignorant!?"
Gib's hand moves to his short sword, but he does not draw it. He takes a single step forward and attempts to gauge reactions, both from you and from his own backup. Everyone else seems hesitant about open combat, as they are mostly armed with farming or fishing implements.
Regina's face contorts in distress. She grew up around these people. At a bit of an arms length, granted, on account of her being an asimar but it is still shocking to see them treat Kendra so harshly.
"How could you possibly believe this?"
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Irene slowly lifted her head and glared at the man.
What an idiot. Who does things like that? She was used to scum surrounding her on a daily basis. Treating her like garbage made sense but... Kendra was beautiful. Normal. HUMAN.
She began to hand Kendra the parasol but did not let go, looked her in the eyes and spoke softly,
"I will fight them for you if it is your wish but just as well, if you don't want me to, I will not. It's your call."
Kendra says nothing. She is far too mad to speak civilly. However, she places a hand on the parasol, so that it will not hit the ground should a fight break out.
Although distressed by the aggression and surprised by the accusation of necromancy, Bruce calmly steps forward and inserts himself at the head of the party. He says nothing for he is not good with words, but he hopes that some of his more charming companions will talk some of the anger out of the air.
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Maeve has gotten out of many tricky situations in her life due to her charismatic aura. She steps up beside Brucifer, flashes a smile and calmly says:
"Gentlemen please. I can tell today has been a long day for all of us. I give you my word that he was no necromancer. I understand why you wouldn't want to taint the land where your ancestors lie and neither would we. But this is a day of mourning for his daughter and she already has approval for him to be buried here. Do you think that Father Grimburrow wouldn't have already made sure that the professor was worthy of being buried here? He lived here and deserves this as much as any of you or your ancestors. There is no need for bloodshed and hate in a place with already so much melancholy and death. Let us pass and put him to rest."
Gibs snorts and steps forward, clearly intent on violence. He calls back to the villagers with him. "Come on, let's get them out of here."
Some of the villagers, even now were clearly just present to try and be intimidating and were not prepared for real violence, but still, about 6 men move forward. They carry an assortment of shovels, pitchforks and splitting mauls.
Initiative order= Brucifer, Gibs, Irene, Thug 4, Thug 2, Regina, Thug 5, Trilly, Maeve, Thug 1, Thug 3.
Although disheartened by the turn of events, Bruce is unafraid and steps up to Gibs, frowning, and throws some punches.
Punch 1
Punch 2
Brucifer steps up and lays a stone fist clean into the side of Gib's jaw. Gibs, clearly caught off guard by the force of the blow, goes slack and collapses, unconscious. The rest of those who have drawn weapons seem even more uncertain about this now.
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Irene gathers herself and whips out her pan flute,
"Well, come and get it." and begins to play, inspiring courage.
Performance to inspire courage in her allies (including herself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. An affected ally receives a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Thug 4 moves forward to attack Brucifer with a pitchfork.
Thug 2 moves up to reinforce him, swinging a shovel at the side of Brucifer's head.
Both of their swings go wide and they look at each other with a terrified expression.
Regina casts dancing darkness, creating sphere's of darkness around thug 1-4's heads (appearing to them as if the darkness level dimmed by one).
"This fight needs to stop, now. Before anyone else is hurt."
Thugs 1-4 grow visibly nervous as the sky above them starts to dim. All four gain the Shaken condition, gaining a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.
Thug 5 muscles his way to the front and swings an iron tongued rake at Brucifer.
Which Brucifer ducks under effortlessly.
Trilly and Maeve's turn. In whatever order y'all want.
Thugs 5 and 4 both fail their saves, and barely clinging to consciousness, attempt to flee. They make it about 60 feet before they white out and collapse into the gravesoil. Thug 3 summarily fleeing and collapsing shortly behind them.
Thug 1 and 2, after seeing your clear use of magic, clearly the very thing they were afraid of, run away in a full panic. Screaming about witches and warlocks and necromancers in the night, despite it being broad daylight.
Combat is now effectively over. Four of them are unconscious and the other two are running away in a blind panic.
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"Well, I'm glad that is over. Let us continue."
Irene was used to dealing with people of this caliber. More often than not, the won't listen to reason and almost never learn their lessons. She wanted to help the men who had fallen but fear consumed that desire. Irene walks to Kendra and puts her hand on the parasol to hold it.
Bruce walks over to the man he punched to make sure he isn't dead, a little surprised at how easily he went down even though Bruce certainly didn't pull his punch.
The man groans slightly when prodded although seems to have a pretty serious injury
Kendra released the Parasol back to Irene. She silently struggles for a moment to regain her composure before speaking. "Thank you for that. I can't imagine what would have happened to Father had they buried him outside of the cemetery."
She pauses a moment, withdraws a handkerchief and dabs at the corners of her eyes. "Please, it's not much further to the plot. Father Grimburrow should be waiting."
No sooner had she spoken than three men come around the bend. The eldest, dressed as a priest, is sallowed, wrinkled, and pale with no hair on his head save for great bushes of eyebrows the same white as the tufts coming out of his ears. His eyes squint so tightly in the light that you can barely see them at all. The two younger men are dressed as nicely as gravediggers typically manage, with minimal dirt on their otherwise washed clothing, and are carrying rather filthy spades.
The priest rasps out. "Was there trouble? I heard shouting."
"Somewhat, Father Grimburrow. Gibs and his friends attempted to confiscate my father's body to bury it outside the city in the hills. Some of my families acquaintances ... pacified them. Please do make sure that they are alive at least. We truly don't want any trouble."
Father Grimburrow takes a look around the unconscious bodies, huffs and starts casting stabilize on them all as he talks
"Local farmhands, every one of 'em. I know their faces. Low of character, especially if they're running with Gibs now. They'll live, anyway." He gestures to the younger gravedigger. "Booker, fetch the sheriff would you? We'll get on with the funeral."
Father Grimburrow leading the way, the funeral procession makes its way to the plot. Father Grimburrow gives a short sermon about the tenuous threads that bind people to mortality, and how good deeds can lead people into heaven after the boneyard. He ends this sermon with several notes about things that Petros did while he has been serving as the village priest which has most assuredly earned him a rather cushioned cloud on which to rest, before shooting Kendra a pained smile and inviting her to say a few words.
Kendra begins to talk about her fathers efforts to fight back the evils of the darkness when her voice cracks, and tears fill her eyes. "Please. I think it would mean more coming from those he worked more closely with. If you could, share your own stories about my father. "