Clara stands opposite of Tarjun, checking his work.
Suddenly she looksk over his shoulder pointing with her finger at something behind him. "I wouldn't say that." She tells, becomeing suddenly very pale.
Behind Tarjun one of the skeletons in rags gets off it's intended eternal resting place and attacks the boy.
"Duck!" Clara calls out and steps to the side. She waves her hand, speaks a word and sends a wave of flames spreading from her hand past Tarjun and into the skeleton.
The skeleton is burned badly, but the smoldering remains move forward and claw at Tarjun. But as the leg bone breaks on the way the undead missis Tarjun and stumbles into the wall.
Jewel stares at the skeletons as they rise to fight. She squeaks out "Mr. Dawnbreeze didn't warn about this. Did he forget again!" She casts a spell of her own and reaches out toward one of the advancing skeletons.
Jewel holds down one of the skeletons that are about to get up and floods it with holy energy, sucking most of the dark force that animtates the undead out of it.
"Brina, KILL that thing!!!"
Tobar attempts to push Brina into attacking the skeleton
Brina looks at Tobar, looks at the ominous, eerie, scary bunch of bones, looks back at Tobar, looks at the bones
"Is he crazy? I'll attack pigs or small green people. But walking bones? No!!"
She then retreats and, of course, grooms herself.
Brina uses some common sense and decides that those walking bones are someone elses problem. Leaving Tobar and the other kids alone with the skeletons.
Clara finds out that there is a skeleton behind her too in a very painful way. Which leaves her on the ground, with torn clothes and big bleeding claw marks on her back. Fo rher the fight is over.
The skeleton Jewel attacked retaliates, also wounding her badly.
Tarjun ends the skeleton that attacked him with a blow of his staff, reducing the bones to splinters, that then turn to dust.
Seeing Clara fall Jewel realizes that she will need her healing magic, if she survives. Without a weapon like her brother's staff she can do little except try and not get hit. Calling on her ability to speak with animals she calls out to Brina, "Brina help! They're hurting us! Clara's down!"
"Brina, you have to save Clara!!"
The magic stick rolls from Clara'shand to the ground.
Jewel is attacked by the skeleton again, but her alert stance is enough to dodge the attack.
Tarjun heroically attacks the skeleton, but to little effect. The other skeleton claws back at him adding a painful gash to his arm.
Still scared of the skeleton's attack, Jewel spots the scepter Clara had dropped. She steps toward it, hoping she can survive long enough to try to use it. Grabbing for it she aims it at the skeleton by her and tries to remember what Clara had done to make the flame attack.
Jewel continues calling out to Brina with Feral Tongue. "Brina help! Clara is down and these scary bony things are trying to hurt us! We need you! Rip them apart with your strong claws!"
"Brina, we NEED you. I know they're scary but you're strong and brave. Just remember all the good scritches that Clara has given you"
"Hey, its BELLY RUBBER who is in trouble! Why didn't you say so?"
With that, Brina leaps into action, moving up to the nearest skeleton and savaging it
for (bashing)
Seeing the scepter roll from Clara's hand Jewel tries to grab it and turn it on the skeleton attacking her.
Brina goes for the bones with osteoporosis from the holy energy and with a head first jump into it, she breaks the ribcage and as a result the whole skeleton.
Jewel has a hard time figuring out how to direct the flames, to not burn Clara, Tarjun or Brina in the process, but finally a pattern emerges in her mind that allows her to only burn the skelly. And she burns it for good. The blackened skeleton crumbles to pieces.
Brina jumps with a headstart into the skeleton which has osteoporosis, because of the application of holy energy already. She breaks the ribcage and in effect the whole skeleton.
Jewel has a hard time finding a way to burn the remaining skeleton, without burning also Tarjun, Clara or Brina. But finally a pattern emerges in her mind and she douses the undead in flames. The blackened bones of skeleton crumble and disperse on the ground.
Jewel is surprised to hear a voice in her head. She glances around confused. ""Erastil?"
Then she remembers Clara. Running to her she drops to her knees and casts her remaining healing spell.
Clara mechanically sits up. Staring out of unmoving eyes, turning her head towards the Jewel she shouts "Garrrrrr!" and claws at Jewel.
Seeing Jewel's reaction her face brightens as she falls over backwards again and starts laughing hysterically.
When Clara sits up, pretending to attack like a zombie (or something) Jewel shrieks and stumbles back. Then Clara starts laughing, which only upsets her more. "Clara! That's mean. You were hurt bad, and we were too! I wasn't really sure we could beat these things to save you and now I've used my last healing spell.... I hope there's no more dangers here! And did you ever hear voices when you used this rod?" She starts scanning the area, looking for anything or anybody other than the group.
Her brow furrowed she whispers,
Clara jumps up. "We are the queens of the world! We destroyed them!" Clara proclaims with joy.
As she notices, that Jewel has the scepter she cires "Hey, give Caspar back!"
Clara punches Tobar on the shoulder. "No I did not name my stick!" she tells.
"So, then, uh, who DID name your stick Caspar?"
Jewel stares at the scepter for a moment longer,
She glances around the area, "I wonder if we should try and gather up the remains of the skellies and put the back where they were buried? I think they were put here as Guardians. We shouldn't be disrespectful just 'cause they mistook us for grave robbers. I mean, technically we are 'robbing'. But we need whatever is here to protect our homes."
Once that is done she nods to the others. "Now we get to figure out whatever is here. Clara, Could you please scan for magic? I don't know what we are really searching for but it's probably magical. But it might be covered so I guess we all should search."
Clara takes the scepter back and does as told, scanning the area for magic. "There in the box we dug up is magic." She points to the chest which is now covered under dirt again after the fight.
A little dusting off and some more shovelling around allows to open the chest's lid. To your surprise it seems not to be locked.
A magical net
12 undead bane arrows
A wand of cure light wounds (32 charges)
Wand of magic missile (8 charges)
+1 disruptive club.
Another scepter. This one in silver with a large perl as knob.
And last but not least a book describing a ritual with a scroll of atonement between the pages.
Clara pouts, as she inadvetently gave away her secret. "Yes." she mumbles.
Seeing the various items in the chest Jewel starts to reach for the scepter, curiosity obvious on her face. She pauses though at Tarjun's words. "You may be right Tarjun. Clara, Ask Caspar if he knows anything about this other septer before anyone touches it. Or any of this other stuff. We want to put Breathnach down so he can't hurt anyone. But what do we do with these things after? We're the Guardians of Erastil, but we're also still kids...." Her hand moves to the book. "Maybe this will tell us?"
Jewel pulls the book from the chest and sits down to look through it.
"Casper talks really condescending about that other scepter. I think he is jealous."
"Hey, it's not my fault you act like a three year old." Clara tells.
"Tarjun! Stop that. Caspar spoke to me too. He talks to you in your head, but only if he wants to and if you are holding him. He seemed pretty nice to me.... But Clara has known him longer so she prolly knows him better."
Jewel takes her time reading through the book, occasionally reading details a second time to verify the meaning. "This looks like it will do it, but it's complicated. Herbs to burn should be simple, and there are symbols to draw and organize just right. But I think we need to talk to our parents again. If we have to bring others from the village to it they'll probably have to convince them. Not like they'll accept words from some kids!"
Glancing at the other stuff she opens the scrolls and sighs. "This looks intense. I think we need time to talk this out and plan. Should we try to carry the chest? Or just distribute the stuff and then close this hole up again? We can't leave anything here unguarded."
Clara takes a look into the chest, but the only cool thing there is the scepter. And as Tarjun has called dibs on it already there is nothing that she is interested in. "I can carry some of those paperthingies." she tells, to not be burdened with the heavy stuff.
"I'll take at least some of those arrows if that is ok with you. Mr ghost, we've got you now!!!!"
Clara picks up the net. She plays around with it a bit and it doesn't take long until she is completely entangled in it. She stumbles, topples over and falls into the chest. Luckily nothing fragile was left n there. "Help?" she asks.
Jewel moves over by the chest openly laughing. "You're not a ghost. Why are you caught in the net? Never mind, but hold still."
She takes a little more time than she really needs, pretending to study how the net has Clara trapped, chuckling to herself.
"It's nice to see you have fun." Clara pouts, but over time she doesn't manage to keep a straight face. "Booohooo let me out or I will haunt you in your dreams."
Clara laughing is not really helping with getting her out.
"Shall we go home and tell mum what we found?" she asks as she is finally on her feet again.
Clara sticks her tongue out at Tarjun. She grabs some scrolls and is on her way back. Once they are back home again she tells Gertrud "Mom, we found the grave hill, and fought some bone men and found stuff. and I got caught in a net. And Tarjun made fun of me!" She turns and sticks her tongue out at Tarjun again.
Gertrud pats Clara's head. "Again undead? It's getting worse. What did you find? Was there something helpful? Anything to get rid of Breathnacht?"