Eloise sweeps her eyes across the dead man's body, the odd glitter of magical enhancement dimly visible in their depths.
"Now scanning..."
Sour Heck closes his cloak and pulls his hood up against the weather. “Desnans in this town, hey? Well, maybe they didn’t flee after all...maybe they just all went for a prolonged wander. Except for this lot in the graveyard. What am I saying? They’re probably wandering around too.”
At the bard’s beckoning whisper, four dancing lights rise up from the earth in a circle around him. He waves them forward, and they glide through the chapel’s broken windows, illuminating its interior with their ghostly glow. “Anyone see anything moving in there? What a dump. Desna’s supposed to be the goddess of luck, isn’t she? I guess she’s lucky this place hasn’t fallen down yet. Goddess of dreams, too. This feels like one of the dreams I’d like to wake up from.”
Sour Heck circles the chapel, taking note of the headstones and keeping an eye out for danger. If nothing jumps out at him--literally or figuratively--he waggles his eyebrows at Peredur. “I’m not sure how safe it is inside, but it’s bound to be drier. After you!”
Eloise, you detect nothing magical on the man. Nor in the chapel when you approach it (nor the intermediate house).
Iesha, you see no signs of desecration.
There is no movement in the chapel as Sour Heck scans around it and the graveyard.
Eloise grunts sourly.
"Drier. Sure," she mutters as she slowly enters the chapel, her sword held in a one-handed grip, magic flaring around her free hand.
The Magus starts to hum a tune under her breath -- ironically, or perhaps not that ironically, it is the tune of a hymn to Desna...
Peredur collects the items from the body before following Eloise into the chapel.
"Maybe we shouldn't tarry here overlong," Eloise says. "Young Allen suggested Brother Swarm lairs in yon hill. Maybe we should get there before he can draw in his slaves and strike."
"Terrible idea, Eloise. Right now, th' spawn are considerably weaker than th' maker. When th' maker's put to rest, though, all th' spawn become as strong as th' maker was."
Peredur for undead
Once within, Eloise and Peredur can see that the simple chapel is falling victim to rot, its pews are already overgrown, and some of its windows are smashed. Mice nest in the altar, the holy water in the font is turning green, and the once-beautiful frescoes depicting Desna and the heavens have begun to flake. The stone altar, at the head of the church, holds several maps and what appear to be a few mementos.
As Peredur looks toward the altar, he notices a tiny form resembling the face of a young girl quickly peer out and disappear even more quickly.
I should note that as Sour Heck took note of the headstones, he will see the names of the six children mentioned previously among them.
At this point, I'm assuming Eloise and Peredur are definitely at least a few feet inside the chapel doorway, and the rest are either a few feet outside or merely near the outside of the doorway.
"This place needs some attention from a small army of handymen and artists," Eloise calls to the people outside, "but I don't see anything too creepy -- yet."
Peredur shakes his head. "It may be a trick of th' light, but I think there's th' shade of a girl here."
"Is it Ellsa?" Eloise asks out loud, her eyebrows drawing down. "Or someone else? Shall I sing for you, dear?"
Without waiting for a reply, Eloise starts to sing. The tune is reminiscent of simple folk songs at first, but then shifts subtly and warps into an unearthly, haunting tune that echoes oddly between the walls of Desna's holy house.
“Ware the mice,” Sour Heck stage-whispers, “They carry all kinds of disease.” Then he slaps his head. “There’s my foolish optimism again, thinking we’ll live long enough to waste away horribly.”
When Peredur mentions the little girl, Sour Heck nods grimly. “Be ready.” He steps in the chapel behind Peredur, longspear at the ready, and stamps its butt loudly on the floorboards. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” the bard shouts, in the timeless child’s formula of hide-and-seek. “Brother Swarm wants you to play with us, and you know you have to do what Brother Swarm wants. Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
Iesha will join Eloise in her song.
Talia, too, joins her voice to the chorus.
The church darkens as the light outside continues to dim. The church and surround are almost dark as night at this point as the storm clouds continue to gather. A soft rain begins to fall.
As the group begins to sing, a small wail can be heard behind the alter.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Nooooooooo. That's not how it goes!"
A small, ghostly form of a girl pops up from behind the alter. Her body wreathed in a dark fire, and her face twisted in a rage, she shouts at the singing patrons, "You don't get to sing unless he says so. Why did he send you?!"
She glares at Sour Heck.
“That depends on which little girl you are,” Sour Heck says. “Come out where we can see you better. Are you Karin? Rachel? Ellsa?” He casually steps to the side, circling around the room the opposite way from Peredur, trying to put the little girl between them. “You know the game blind man’s buff, don’t you?”
While Sour Heck engages the little undead girl in conversation, Eloise moves the other way in silence, slowly putting the child between them while providing Peredur with a clear shot.
Peredur quietly waits for Sour Heck to raise the banner, salted arrow laid across the string but not drawn yet.
"My name's Raaachell!" the girl screams, her face twisted at once in both agony and hatred. She lunges at Sour Heck, arms outstretched, screaming "I'll poke your eyes out and make you blind"
Iesha
Peredur
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
Rachel
attack
dmg
drain
Initiative:
Rachel
Sour Heck
Eloise
Talia
Iesha
Peredur
Rachel manages to close the distance with Sour Heck, gliding over the alter and the short distance to him. The rage in her scream clearly driving her to sudden ferocity. Her fingers penetrate into Sour Heck's flesh, raking him. Small wisps of light seemingly flow from Sour Heck to the twisted girl's form as she attacks.
All PC's may act
"Nisil mors, nisil vivens, rescindendam es!" Eloise shouts, and she fires a bright, golden ray at the undead child as it attacks Sour Heck.
Sour Heck recoils from the undead thing’s touch. “Ah ah ah, Rachel, you’re not playing the game! You have to close your eyes and wait for us to call you out.” The bard dodges backward, levelling banner and spear between himself and it, then begins to chant:
“Dead girl, dead girl, come alive,”
“Come alive at the count of five.”
“ONE...”
As Sour Heck retreats, Peredur fires at the cursed child, his magicked arrow tearing into the creature.
Iesha also fires at the poor child.
for
Talia readies a Healing Hex, in case the undead kid come close to her.
The small creature known as Rachel gasps as the ray from Eloise's hand reaches her, though she is apparently able to shrug it off. The girl steps forward again, arms forward with hands curled into claws. She lunges forward, and again her hands seem to sink through Sour Heck's armor and clothing. As her claw-like hands rake across the Dirge's chest, she seems to gather energy into herself.
All PC's may act.
"Nisil mors, nisil vivens, rescendendam es!" Eloise chants, again unleashing the bright, golden ray at Rachel. "Heck, get well back! Peredur, let's give him some covering fire!"
Sour Heck shudders at the wraith girl’s touch, his face growing pale. “Little cheater! You remind me of my sisters. Consider yourself warned.” The bard cautiously backs away, moving toward the holy water font, jabbing his spear to keep Rachel at bay.
As soon as the bard is clear, Peredur fires again. The arrow flashes through the cursed child, trailing a ribbon of ectoplasm.
Iesha releases another arrow, striking the small wraith-like child dead center. At the same time, Sour Heck and Peredur step forward, delivering additional blows with arrow and longspear. The girl turns to each of her attackers in turn, accusing eyes glowing red and finally going dark. With a whimper, her small form begins to smolder and shrink, filling the air with an acrid stench. After a moment, only ash remains.
Seconds later, a large, blood curdling scream can be heard from the South.
The wind and rain seem to pick up, battering the shutters of the church and blowing leaves in the broken window with a fury now.
"May she rest in peace," Eloise says, her face pale. The Chelishwoman makes the spiral sign of Pharasma, followed by Milani's sign of the rose. "Sour Heck, are you... well enough to continue? And where do we investigate after this? We'll be lucky if the master wraith hasn't called his remaining two lackeys to his side yet."
"Six minus two equals four damned children left. One of us is too scared to do math. Or we both are. But usually I count better when I'm terrified...learned my sums from my mother, you see."
"I'll be well enough after a touch from Talia. Wouldn't want to run out of life for these little monsters to steal."
"Iesha...is this water still holy? Can we exorcize a child or three with the vials we have on us, then come here to refill?"
Talia smiles and transfers her held touch to Sour Heck.
"Here, Sour. Next time, try not to play too close to the children."
"They can be terrible little tots..." Talia grins at the bard while examining him to see how badly he may still be wounded.
Sour Heck pats Talia's shoulder gratefully. "At least they're not undead teenagers. Thank Pharasma we got here before they hit puberty."
The bard examines the end of his spear, blackened from the wraith child's death throes. He digs out his whetstone and uses it to strip away the residue of the ghost salt, then sets to sharpening its edges once more.
"That's nearly all the salts I bought-- we've one application left, which I can use on the trap, or prepare one more blade or arrow. I've got holy water and this Pharasma-blessed wand at hand, so I'll go without another treatment on my spear. For now."
He looks out the southmost window into the gathering storm. "Anyone know what that scream was? Peredur, what do your half-elf eyes half-see?"
"It pains me to say I forgot this, but we still have a few undead bane arrows left. Salting one of those would be a fine thing."
Peredur looks out in the direction of the scream.
"Gehh, six of them," Eloise says, shaking her head. "I blocked it out, somehow. Thought there were only four. This is horrible work."
Eloise likewise looks in the direction the scream came from, and grimaces.
"I'd wager good money that was the master wraith," she says. "It can sense its spawn dying, I'd guess. In any case, even if salts run out, I'll be able to enchant my blade a few more times today. That should be to our advantage."
The doors bang loudly as the wind continues to increase in ferocity.
"There's a shadow out there, and it's coming fast. 'Tis lucky we are that it seems th' water's still blessed."
"If anyone wants a magic enhancement on their weapon, get over to me before it gets here!" Eloise says, blade already in hand. "Peredur, Iesha, sniping positions! Sour Heck, Talia, get behind me!"
"Enchant my spear, Eloise...might as well leave a magic weapon for whoever finds my bones."
Sour Heck stands beside Eloise as she casts her spell, bracing his longspear to receive a charge.
"Telum arcanum!" Eloise chants, clapping one hand to Sour Heck's spear. A thrum of power flows through the weapon, vibrating against the Bard's hands.
Peredur backs away from the door, arrow on string.
It appears as though there are 3 vials worth of holy water left in the fountain.
The low, pained growling sounds like it is very much near the door now. You may only have another 10 seconds before it reaches the doorway.
Talia nods and moves behind Eloise, placing a Ward Hex on her as she passes.
If the whatever it is really does come in to attack, Eloise casts Shield on herself just as the thing breaches the doorway.
The ranger sets his bow aside, draws his sword, and sets his shield in place before advancing to stand next to Eloise.
Moments later, the group can hear the drone of a hornet swarm, and a wave of a sickly sweet stench of decay pours through the doorway.
A cloud of four glowing red eyes, surrounded by a swarming mass of ghostly hornets steps into the doorway. Wrapped in a wispy, tattered cloak, it's ethereal form floats a few feet above the ground. Although it has no discernible face, it appears to almost stare at the floor where Rachael's ashen form fell. It lingers there only briefly until it turns its ghastly head toward Sour Heck.
Iesha
Peredur
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
Brother Swarm
Initiative
Talia
Peredur
Iesha
Eloise
Thing in doorway
Sour Heck
All PC's may act
"My friends, here's th' way to deal with th' unquiet dead!"
On the next round, he puts another ghost salted arrow through the wraith.
"And here is mine!" Eloise growls, as she points her free hand at the hideous undead. "Tempesta ex sectura!" Briefly, a storm of rocks, grit and dust rages in the doorway, enveloping the monstrosity. Her blade starts to glow with a chill, angry light.