The party heads back towards Fort Hailcourse, but as they pass near some woods, a shambling twisted corpse lumbers out of the woods, its eyes glowing with red malevolence and its claws outstretched. "Kilarra," it growls, "I've finally found you...vengeance is mine, at last."
No one has any clue what the creature is.
Garrosh takes a split second to examine the creature's movements, then fires a single shot, and steps to the side.
Garrosh's arrow sticks into the creature's arm but not very deeply.
It lurches through the forest with supernatural speed, making a detour around the party just to move next to Kilarra.
Winter guesses, "I think this is some kind of undead creature that you might have pissed off in life, Kilarra," as she casts bless on the party.
Garrosh shifts his position slightly, and fires two arrows in quick succession.
Hanako sees how little damage Garrosh’s arrow does, which means the bow in her hand is the correct one: the bow that plays the viol!
“This situation calls for a song,” she says as she begins a rather mysterious tune, playing the lowest octave her instrument can reach. She’d love to make this a dig and add, ‘a song that makes other people do the fighting for me,’ but that doesn’t rhyme. So she completes her intro: “A magical song that bolsters the strong!”
She sings in a sultry whisper,
Who can imagine
The lurker’s thinking?
Feet up, a smirk
A champagne glass clinking
He got his big wish
And caught his big fish
Revenge is a dish
Served sliced
The bloodlust is clouding
The lurker’s senses
He hones on his target
Ignoring defenses
Too slow to attack
Exposing his back
Let’s hack him ’til he’s
Dead twice
Baldart sits on top of Hanako’s head, snapping her fingers to the beat. She dims her luminous aura to a violet blue.
"I don't even remember this guy." Kilarra says as she draws her greatsword. "But I can smite you all the same!"
Kilarra's sword glows golden as she makes a single downward cut.
"Maybe has something to do with those thugs who knew you from before?" Piotr offers, taking time to move up next to Kilarra to defend her with his shield and to concentrate on letting Ann out of his head.
Ann circles around the creature to provide flanking to Kilarra.
Garrosh's first arrow, enhanced by Hanako's song, barely nicks the creature while the second arrow does more damage.
Kilarra's golden blazing sword however, cleaves deeply into the creature's flesh, and it retaliates with a snarl, as it steps out of the flank. "Die, hellspawn!"
Piotr manages to block the first blow but feels the sheer rage and strength behind it.
Winter quickly heals Kilarra.
Kilarra's caught offguard by the ferocity of the undead, but as she's about to freak out, she feels the soothing magic from Winter.
Staying stalwart, she assumes a defensive fighting position, steps with Ann to resume the flank, and attacks cautiously.
The mindless assassin
With fury unfastened
Cries out in passion
His wild claws slashing
But his target has friends
One who’s quick to defend
Another mends wounds and
The rest, we are ready to send
This vengeful undead
To a bloody harsh end…
Hanako holds the final note and plays a haunting melody, as if expecting the song and the zombies life are both about to be finished.
The siblings stab and slash Kilarra's bestie.
"That's not her fault you know!" Ann snaps at the undead creature "We could be yelling, Die rotting stench beast with bad teeth at you, but that would just be rude."
Kilarra cleaves into the creature once with her greatsword, though it dodges her backswing, as Piotr cuts the creature down, the short but vicious fight over.
"What the hell was that about?" Winter wonders out loud.
"Your guess' good as mine." Kilarra says as she just stares at the body in confusion. "I guess I piss people off."
The corpse seems to be in patched up clothes and rather skinny. Whether it was due to it rising as undead or that way in life - it is hard to tell.
Hanako says, “A cautionary tale of taking one’s grudges to the grave.”
Of course she bursts into song.
Though I wouldn’t exactly call that a close shave
Kilarra, the way he rushed at you was tactically dumb
And what little pain he caused is already numb
Numbed by Hanako’s healing magic…
…mostly.
Garrosh looks around for tracks - ”I wonder where this thing came from...?”
Garrosh sees the tracks through the forest and going into it.
”Shall we follow these?” - he turns to his companions.
Baldhart jumps off of Hanako head and says “DING!” as she flashes very, very bright green.
"Anything that would help with answers..." Piotr nods, cleaning off his sword. Ann pokes the undead thing with her foor just in case, then turns to follow.
Hanako sees weapons being cleaned. A tune from her viol gradually de-gunks weapons and people of zombie-spatterings.
The undead thing does not move at Ann's proding.
Following the tracks through the forest the party eventually comes to a clearing out of town with several mounds of earth in regular intervals -as if it was a pauper's grave. There is a cavity in the earth near one of the mounds, looking as if something had clawed its way out of the earth.
Hanako asks Winter, “If bodies are risen from the grave, are the souls disturbed from their rest? Or are the corpses animated puppets?”
But the thing that targeted Kilarra made it personal. It… no, *he* remembered her.
The more Hanako sees evidence of necromancy, the more such a thing bothers her.
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Kilarra uses her hoof to stomp once on each mound, as if she were 'knocking' at the grave. "Anyone else got a problem with me?" She says
The graves in question don't respond and Kilarra just sends earth flying.
Winter frowns, "Sometimes if souls leave unfinished business...they don't want to leave Golarion. Ann is an example of that."
"You see, necromancy is one way people can come back as undead," Winter lectures, "But again if people have something that ties them here, they can sometimes, if the tie is strong enough, rise as undead on their own. Vengeance is a prime motivator for that, that or trying to protect their kin."
"If Vengeance makes undead, why doesn't Ragathiel have a bunch of... celestial zombies?"
Kilarra uses her hoof to stomp once on each mound, as if she were 'knocking' at the grave. "Anyone else got a problem with me?" She says
"You probably should not do that Kilarra - a matter of respect for the dead is all" - Garrosh grunts, then he looks around to see any of the mounds are identified somehow, mainly the one with the cavity.
Garrosh sees a couple of wildflowers planted at a few of the other mounds, and near the cavity that was dug up, Garrosh finds some poppy plants.
"People don't plant wildflowers around a grave for people they don't like." Piotr states the obvious "We can ask around town when we get back."
Hanako asks, “What is the significance of poppies on the grave?”
Baldhart tries to be respectful by hovering over graves instead of stepping on the part of the ground giants are not supposed to step on. She sniffs the flowers one by one. She is in a hurry, fearing a giant will tell her she is not allowed to sniff the flowers.
"Poppies are for remembrance, though usually done by military organizations."Winter replies. "That and also since there are no grave markets here - I wager the deceased friends or next of kin couldn't afford it."
"Sad" - Garrosh ponders Winter's words for a moment, then turns back to the others to check if they are ready to leave.
"We should rebury him, shouldn't we?" Piotr asks but is already headed back to pickup the dead undead man who hates Kilarra for whatever reason, and brings him back, laying him as gentle as one can into the disturbed grave, then uses his shield to pull the dirt back on him.
"Okay" he is then ready to put a ghost to rest.
"They don't come back up twice, right?" Kilarra asks
Piotr shrugs "We could put heavy rocks on it, make it harder if it does?"
The party brings the creature back to its grave. Winter goes to the creature's remains before burial and utters a prayer, "Your life is done. Clinging on to your worldly concerns will only bring you grief and suffering. Go in peace to Pharasma's judgement and may she judge you kindly." She then takes out some salt from her pouch and sprinkles it over the body before the party reburies the creature.
Kilarra starts putting more rocks on the grave, she has a flash of memory of her pummeling a vagrant, that looked somewhat like the creature she slew earlier. In that memory, she was yelling at the vagrant, ”I’ll teach you to steal from Count Lowl’s kitchen, you filthy thief!” As the vagrant collapsed on the ground, a thin young man with dark sunken eyes in a dark blue robe was encouraging her, ”Yes, these commoners need to be shown their place. And our master should not be slighted, thus.” In response to being egged on, she kicked the downed man a few more times with her hooves.
The party returns to Fort Hailcourse without further incident.”Garrosh, you were saying you didn’t have a magical bow?” Winter casts magic weapon on Garrosh’s bow.
Motes of heavy dust hang heavy in the room’s stale air. Crates and barrels stand along the damp stone walls. A plastered portion of the wall in the southwest corner of the room has begun to crack. Standing next to the wall is a translucent figure with large tattoos on the torso and thighs, mostly depicting abstract, swirling monstrosities with too many eyes and too many mouths. His emaciated form clad only in a loincloth, and his feet do not touch the ground. "You're back again," the creature remarks at Ann.
Garrosh identifies the creature the ghost of Clymes Prett, a occult bookshop owner that was rumored to have an affair with Count Lowl's mother - but he disappeared about 20 years ago - just a year before Count Lowl's mother died in her sleep. Ghosts are incorporeal.
Garrosh also knows that ghosts have telekinesis, and can throw at the party if they so choose.
Baldhart sings from atop Hanako’s shoulders, her voice a melody of bells…
Hanako soon accompanies the fairy’s performance on viol…
Then she sings,
I’ve been thinking
’Bout you all night
And the girl you hurt
She’s a friend of mine
You wanted her back
Well, now she’s here
But be careful what
You wish for, dear
Kilarra's recollection is not subtle. She starts screaming at the rock pile while pummeling it with the stone in her hands.
"I’ll teach you to steal from Count Lowl’s kitchen, you filthy thief!" She bellows before jumping on the pile and scattering the stones. Then the rage subsides, and she heaves while grasping her head. In a much smaller voice, she says
"What the f!@@?"
---------------------------------------
Now with the ghost, Kilarra moves to the front, and points her greatsword at the ghost, causing the sword to erupt in holy flames.
Garrosh stares as Kilarra goes on her tirade, then approaches slowly - "Klarra? Are you ok? What happened?"
---------------
The party returns to Fort Hailcourse without further incident.”Garrosh, you were saying you didn’t have a magical bow?” Winter casts magic weapon on Garrosh’s bow.
"Thank you Winter - that will be a great help"
Garrosh steps forward behind Piotr, and unleashes an arrow at the terrifying creature.
"Kilarra! Get a hold of yourself!" Winter scolds Kilarra for her disrespectful behaviour to the dead. As Kilarra starts heaving and grasping her head, Winter looks at her disapprovingly, "What, may I ask, were you doing jumping up and down on a grave?"
Garrosh's arrow sticks into the ghosts torso.
Kilarra gives Winter a stink eye. "I was busy killing him for stealing from Count Lowl's kitchen. The blue robed guy approved of it."