Erial roused before the sun to carry out his routine, done properly for the first time in days. Checking each item in his pack, naming it with a touch. He offers a prayer for the eradication of all undead aberrations. Finally, he says a prayer to each god whose medallions grace his rosary.
Making his way downstairs he joins his travelling companions for breakfast before setting out.
When they stumbled upon the murder scene, he immediately draws his bow, eyes scanning the ground. About the same time that he sees the Old Wolf head north, his own trained eyes spot the trail of blood. He sets off after the old warrior, nocking an arrow as he goes.
More blood this way, all. He says quietly.
Old Wolf and Erial begin to follow the blood trail. It leads through a cluster of trees and stops near the church, with the last drops you see close the the hill upon which the cemetery rests.
At that point you cannot see any more drops of blood and the trail goes cold.
Antonies also ignores the sheriff to follow the others after the blood.
|
Kara blanches. "Blah! A funeral is what you do when you're putting a still, motionless, lifeless NOT trying-to-eat-your-brain kinda body in the ground. THAT thing yesterday was planting trap that would wreak a terrible vengeance someday when it got out of the chains.
Different.
Um, we're tourists. We've heard that this place has great...tapestries. Yes. We're tapestry hunters. We track down, admire, and interrogate tapestries. If we reallllly like the tapestry we'll also capture the tapestry.
Totally."
"So Louise d'Cann, huh? Okay, sweet. These guys are gonna go chase a lark, and when they're done with that, I'll lead them over to the candy-seller so we can ask her who the victim was. Deal? Deal!
Hey wait up!" Kara yells as she runs after the others, with no idea where they're going or why...but that's her favorite hobby.
The Constable looks a bit confused at Kara, but seems to buy her story, or at least gives the impression that he considers her non-threatening enough to let the matter go.
She catches up as the rest of the group looks up the hill to the cemetery. It appears quiet and undisturbed, the only movement is some overgrown grasses along the edges swaying in the wind. There doesn't seem to be any more droplets of dried blood nearby.
The Old Wolf pauses as he comes to the end of the trail, his narrowed eyes gazing up the hill. It's all leading here. He glances over his shoulder toward the town, but with everything pointing to the cemetery, there doesn't seem much point in not investigating there, first. Shrugging his sword to a more comfortable position, he strides forward, into the land of the dead.
Erial remains quiet, but smiles as they follow the Old Wolf. He keeps an arrow set to string, eyes roaming for anything jumping out at them.
Antonius draws his own sword, wary of any danger as they approach the cemetery.
You make your way up the hill. The cemetery is surrounded by a 10 foot tall stone wall and an iron gate on the south side, which you recognize from the funeral the other day. The gate is unlocked, and the cemetery appears to be well-tended.
The cemetery itself is filled with mausoleums and stacked vaults above-ground, indicating a high water table in the area.
As you wander around, you see a larger mausoleum with the name "Tarascon" engraved prominently above the entrance. Luc stares up at it with some vague familiarity, but remains silent.
A thin middle-aged man is seen with some gardening tools near the crypt and notices the group.
"Looks all pretty harmless during the day, doesn't it?" he casually asks.
|
|
Kara, never one to let a man speak alone...or uninterrupted for very long...jumps on the statement. "So, whadaya mean by that? We are but strangers in the strange, odd, strange land, and know not of what you mean by that.
Are there, like, undead that rise up during the night? Or something? Where do they come from? How many are there? Have they killed many people? If they were to kill someone, what would they do with them? Would they take them in there?"
"She's a talkie one, isn't she?" the man asks.
"You might find out for yourself if you stick around here long enough. I do my work here during the day, and I'm out by sunset. This whole town is cursed, I tell ya."
"There's got to be what, six villagers missing now? There's talk that the dead rise up at night and take them. I haven't seen it myself except that unfortunate burial the other day."
He points at the Tarascon mausoleum,
"Just over three weeks ago, Marcel Tarascon died. Some say he was killed by the undead, too. Shaman Brucian gave him a funeral, but nobody attended. All the goings-on started after that. The constable's son was the second to die, simply falling to the ground with no explanation."
"Between you and me, I think he'd turned into one of those things too. People going missing in the middle of the night, the dead supposedly rising up. I go straight home at sunset and I don't come out again till dawn. It's all cursed, I tell you!"
He pulls out a small wrapper of cheese and bread and starts eating.
"Don't mind me, but I need a bite before I get back to work. Too much to do and it'll be getting dark before I know it. You want to look around, feel free. Maybe you'll find something."
Just then, you hear a voice call from behind,
"I see you're all still here. And Luc is still following you."
"Good day to you, Pierot. I see you're busy as always keeping things in order here."
You turn and see it's the priest from the other day, Shaman Brucian. He walks up to Luc with a look of concern.
"Still nothing, my boy?"
Luc stares back at him blankly.
Antonius approaches the mausoleum to investigate.
Pierot laughs at Kara and offers her a bit if food.
"You know, it's funny, but this reminds me of a couple things I heard about all this strange stuff happening. I heard that red licorice pieces were found by the constable at the scene of four of the people gone missing."
He stuff some bread in his mouth.
"Licorice! Can you believe that?" he chuckles.
He then goes more serious for a moment.
"Also, they found a lot of blood. I guess it wasn't that funny then."
Antonius walks up and studies the Tarascon mausoleum. He notices that it looks to have been undisturbed for a long while. The newest looking addition has a plaque for a Claudine Tarascon.
Shaman Brucian walks up and joins Antonius.
"Too many deaths of late, and the dead rising into a twisted un-life."
"It began about three weeks ago. Marcel Tarascon died, and his brother Luc hasn't been the same since. He's become what we call a 'lost one,' and he retreated into the swamp. I was checking in on him every few days and bringing him food until he found you."
"After Marcel died, the other deaths started. The first was a field worker named Hogarth. He was perfectly healthy one minute, then fallen dead the next, only to rise as a zombie. And others followed. Now I seal the coffins of the recently dead."
"As for Marcel's twin brother Jean, well, I suppose you'll meet him soon. He's also been in mourning, and probably doesn't even know his younger brother has returned. He hasn't suffered the same fate as poor Luc, but this has been very hard for him as well."
Erial moves to the Old Hunter's back as Shaman Brucian speaks to him.
You say that the zombies rising didn't start until after Marcel died? Did you ever have an issue with these abominations before Marcel?
"No, never. It's only started since." the priest replies to Erial.
"Then it's reasonable that he's the source." The Old Wolf regards the mausoleum, and shifts the sword in his grip. "Can we go inside?"
"It's not locked, and all the crypts here are open to visitors. I doubt you'll find much inside though. The last person buried here was Claudine Tarascon, their mother, and she died years ago." the priest responds.
You get the feeling that Shaman Brucian is being honest, but he's holding something back.
The Old Wolf pauses and looks over his shoulder at the man. "And? You're not telling us something."
Erial stands, content to watch the Old Wolf have his conversation with the priest.
Nothing seems untoward, but maybe he's got a better read on people than I do. Maybe? he thinks to himself, watching the interplay.
Antonius will open up the crypt.
Shaman Brucian gets defensive toward the Old Wolf's question.
"I'm trying to help my village during this terrible time. I just told you everything I know!" he says tersely.
Meanwhile, Antonius opens the crypt and looks around. The Tarascon mausoleum is undisturbed, apart from signs that it has been dusted fairly recently and tended to.
Still unsure of what exactly is going on, Erial wheels on the man.
Anything at all you keep from us now, anything, puts your town and your people at risk. I am willing to be the dam in this flow of undead atrocities, but if you hold out on us you are no less a threat than those shamblers are. Now open up priest before I'm forced to add your symbol to my rosary. he says, steel in his words.
|
|
"Yeah! And then I'd add your galoshes to my belt buckle!" Kara shouts, never having bothered to learn the significance of Erial's rosary. "And Old Wolf would add your silhouette to his sabatons! And Antonious would add your descending aorta to a jealous hamster's infamous nest!"
Kara nods at Erial, happy to help.
Shaman Brucian backs up from the group.
With resignation, he quietly says, "Jean brought Marcel's body to me after he died. But there was nothing I could do to help. I — I wasn't strong enough. And then all this happened. The dead rising. I ... I failed this village."
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Luc begins chanting,
"In sorcerer the Daegon of house the born, though shall unliving, unlife, life scorn."
"The mother stern of child lifeless found, heralds evil of night a time unbound."
And then he goes silent again.
"Luc's been this way ever since his brother died. I don't know why he's chosen to follow you, but he must sense something in you."
"We should leave here. I'll walk down with you to the church, but perhaps you should go and seek out Jean Tarascon yourselves."
The sky darkens as the clouds roll in heavily and lightning dances across the sky again.
Antonius returns to the group after closing the crypt.
"I've only heard him speak one other time. I think those are just nonsensical lines from the poetry book he carries." the priest replies to Kara.
"I never thought to look at them as prophecies."
|
|
Kara's eyebrows rise, as if two mental pieces suddenly snapped into place. "Hmmm, yeah, the thing about poems is they are usually in either the past tense or present tense. And they rarely rhyme. Well, I mean, -sometimes- they rhyme, but not always.
But the radio ga-ga that he's spewing seems to always be in the future tense. Or could at least be taken that way.
Hmmmm...."
As the group walks toward the church, Kara smiles up to Luc's hip. "Hey, stranger. Do you mind if I have a look at your book there?" She holds out her hands, expectantly.
Luc gives up the book to the halfling without word or struggle, almost as though he barely sees her.
As Kara inspects it, she sees it's a collection of children's poems, simply titled Verses for Children.
On the inside cover is written, "To Luc, my beloved brother." It is signed "Marcel."
Upon paging through the book, Kara puzzlingly does not see any of the verses which Luc has chanted thus far, and indeed, the contents seem to just be simple rhymes.
Antonius nods an affirmative and leads the group after Jean.