Cathy's scream of utter terror is abruptly cut off as the thing grabs her by the throat. In her panic, she starts to fight at the zombie, before what is left of her sanity takes over. She's a spellcaster. Brains over brawn, right?
Even as her vision fades and her lungs burn from lack of air, she manages a gesture, with one hand on the holy symbol of Pharasma that always hangs around her neck. A jet of water streams from her outstretched arm, sending the zombie staggering back from her.
Cathy succesffuly manages to cast the spell despite being strangled. The corpse of the professor lurches backwards as a jet of water hits it, and Alexi strikes it with his falchion cutting it almost in two. Hearing Cathy's scream, Kendra comes ruinning from the kitchen with a knife in her hand. "What's going o- oh, Lady of Graves!" She turns pale as she sees the corpose of her late father, but keeps her composure. "Are you both alright?"
”Cathy took a nasty blow! How are you feeling, sister?” Alexi says with concern.
There's a *whoosh* as Cathy sinks to her knees and takes in a shuddering breath of air, and then another and then another. Her face is deathly pale and the bruises around her neck are already showing up on her pale skin, but her face is determined.
She sees the look of horror on her brother's face. "I'm ok. I'm ok." It's not clear if she's trying to reassure Alexi and Kendra, or herself. "But there are other people out there. We need to go and help them." Her own mind is reeling, but she refocuses her concentration. Reaching out to the beyond, she bypasses the conventional rules of magic and summons another of the hounds she relied on yesterday. There's a price for doing things this way. There's always a price. But her need is great.
”You’re right. Let’s go!” Keeping his blade unsheathed, the paladin leads the way.
Steeping over the fallen zombie, it is clear that a number of attackes are taking place across the village. About 20 feet away from you, three zombies are pounding mindlessly aat the door of a house. The screams from behind teh door intesnify as teh door starts to give way.
Cathy points, and the hound that she summoned races towards the zombies, biting at one of them. Her other hand clasps her symbol of Pharasma, calling protective magic to surround Alexi.
Alexi charges alongside the hound!
Cathy's summoned creature and Alexi both miss with their attacks. The zombies turn to face their new opopenents. Alexi is hit once depsite his magical protection, and so is the dog.
Grimacing in pain, Alexi swings again, another wide arc that misses the mark!
"Alexi, be careful!" Cathy shouts a warning too late as the zombie strikes her brother. Using some minor magic, she conjures up a corrosive fleck of acid and throws it at one of the undead.
The summoned hound continues to attack.
The zombies stagger under the attack and are unable to do any damage.
Alexi swings again, taking off a zombie's head!
One zombie collapses in a shower of gore! Two more reamain.
Cathy slings another acid dart, while the hound continues trying to bite.
Cathy's acid bolt lands a hit but the dog misses. In return it gets sent back where it came from, but Alexi again exapes injury.
Alexi brings his blade down in an overhead slice!
Cathy launches another dart of acid, as ineffectual as most of the others. She mutters a bad word as it flies off-target (although hopefully Alexi is preoccupied enough that he doesn't hear it). She's been more of a theoretician up until this point - practical magic hasn't really been her forte. That's her excuse, anyway.
Alexi cuts another zombie apart, and then the reinforcmetns arrive. There is a flash of white light and the last zombie collapses as Father Grimburrow uses his divine power. He nods at you, recognixing you from the fueneral. "Ah, Porfessor Lorrimer's friends, yes? Good work." He frowns, his old face deeply lined. "I have heard of this sort of thing before, but never seen it, and never here. Something called these poor things up from the grave, i have been fighting them all over the village. This is the last of it." He instructs his three acolytes and they hurry over to pick up the reamains, taking them back to the graveyard fro re-burial.
Fahter Grimburrw nods at you both. "Stay safe. Best get back indorrs." Seeing you are both hurt, he calls on Pharasma's power to heal you both.
"Thank you, father. The Inheritor's light shine upon you," Alexi says, bowing to the priest. He takes his sister's hand. "Come on, let's go back and check on Kendra!"
As the danger passes and the priest's healing power washes over her, Cathy goes into deep shock, her face losing even its normal pale colouring and going completely white. She sinks to the ground as her legs give way, unable to move even as Alexi takes her hand. For all his coaxing, he eventually has to pick her up and carry her back.
The priest and his acolytes have removed the body of Professor Lorrimer as you arrive back at the house. Kendra takes one look at you both and hands each of you a mug of hot tea, sweetened with sugar and fortified with brandy instead of milk. "My father's own remedy for shock. Drink it. I've had two already." She looks at you both. "It's not optional." Seeing Cathy is inparticular distress, she gently helps her onto one of the couches in the livign room. "We can eat in here, if you like. I'll bring the plates through." She looks at Cathy with concern, and then at Alexi. "Should I get some blankets?"
”Yes, please. I think Cathy is going to need some time to process things.”
Alexi sips his tea as he squeezes Cathy’s hand. He has seen worse horrors in the Worldwound, but even so, he is rattled as well.
Cathy gratefully wraps her hands around the warm mug and gulps down as much of the hot tea as she can. It does restore some colour to her cheeks. She nods as Kendra suggests eating supper on the sofa. Curled up in a blanket, she sits against her brother, slowly allowing the warmth of the room and the peacefulness to restore her spirits. She still has vivid bruises around her neck from where the zombie grabbed her, but the priest's healing has healed the worst of the injuries suffered.
The followig day the village is alive with anger and rumour and speculation and gossip. Nobody is sure who to blame for what happened, but everyone is sure that it's the council's responsibility to sort it out. Councillor Hearhtmount accordingly issues a statemnt that there will be a meeting at the town hall that evening, after supper. Anyone is free to attend and make their opnion heard, and the council will decide what to do.
The atmosphere when you all walk in is tense, to say the least. Many people have hard suspiciouns about where the problme is coming from, and almost eveyone knows that Professor Lorrimer was found dead at the prison. A small but vocal group of locals is determined to place the blame for this at his door. Councillor Hearthmount eventually does take back order of the meeting, but only after a lot of argument and shouting matches between various people. Eventually however, they run out of things to shout and a grim silcence falls. Councillor Hearthmout rises to his feet. "People of Ravengro, we have heard you and we agree that things are out of the ordinary right now. But let us not give in to panic. After all, that prison has stood for years and we have had no problems. I am sure that things will quiet down very soon. In the meantime, we must not give in to panic. We will get things entirely under control."
In the moment of stunned disbelief that anyone could read the room so badly, there's the sound of a scraped chair as Kendra stands up calmly. "Well thank you Councilman for your words of calm. But I would like to add my opinion, which is that my father thought there was something badly wrong with the prison and he died investigating it. He is no longer able to assist us, but as fate would have it, two of his former assistants are staying with me." She gestures to both of you. "I would liek the Council's permission to hvae them explore the prison and see what is going on up there."
There are some cries of agreement, but several people shout at Kendra to sit down. Councillor Hearthmount turns as red as a beetroot at being interrupted. "I am so grateful for your opinion, young lady, but this is Ravengro." He has to raise his voice as several people start to shout, both in support and in disagreement. "As I was SAYING, this is RAVENGRO and we are PERFECTLY CAPABLE"
Exactly what the village is capable of is lost in a series of explosions as the lamps lining the walls of the room explode! There is an unearthly wailing as several skulls burst out from the lamps, wreathed in flame. They fly across the room, attacking the panicked crowd. Two of them fly straight for the Councilman while the rest seem to be moving at random.
As soon as the lamps explode and the skulls appear, Alexi is up on his feet. "Everybody, get to safety!" the paladin cries as she pushes through the crowd towards Councilor Hearthmount. He draws his blade and slices at one of the skulls threatening the councilman!
Cathy is so bored as the voices drone on and on and on about what they're going to do. It's obvious that she and Alexi are going to have to explore the prison, with or without permission. The arrival of the fiery skulls is a little more excitement than she was hoping for, however. Staying on her feet, she decides not to try and move through the crowd of panicking villagers. Thankfully, she doesn't need to. A flick of one hand and a bolt of pure force flies from her hand, smashing into the nearest skull.
Alexi smashes one of the skulls to pieces, but the other proves more resistant to Cathyrie'ls magic. It flies straight at her. Three more are drawn to the paladin, seeing him as a threat. They all miss with their attacks, flying past as you both manage to dodge out the way. The remaining skulls continue to chase and terrify the villagers.
Alexi whirls to attack one of the other skulls menacing him.
Cathy dodges the skull, trying to put some space between her and it. She blasts it with another magic missile.
Cathy's spell works much better this time and destroys the skull attacking her. Alexi also samshes another one to fragments. As if realising that you two are the biggest threats,t he remainig skulls converge on you, allowing the villagers to flee to safety. Two of the skulls land solid hits on Alexi, although he resists most of the damage. One of them manages to strike Cathy, although it's only a glancing blow.
Gritting his teeth against the pain of the burns, Alexi brings his sword up in a rising slice!
Cathy gives a sharp cry of pain as the skull slams into her and burns her flesh. She continues to step away from the skulls attacking her, unleashing another blast of force at the nearest one.
Alexi destryoys another skull, as does Cathy's magic. One of the remaining skulls butts against Alexi, and the paladin sees stars as bone strikes bone. Cathy dodges again.
This time, Alexi misjudges his swing.
Cathy uses her last spell to try and get rid of the skull that's attacking her.
Cathy's spell isn't enought to finish off the skull that is atacking her. Luckily for her, it unbalances the skull enough that it misses her this time.
Alexi misses again!
Now down to cantrips, Cathy tries to finish things quickly. Her magic however seems to have other ideas.
Alexi misses, but CAthy's spell hits, doing minimal ddamage. The skuls in return also fail to cause you any harm.
Evenutally however the two of you are able to put the remaining skulls to rest and order is restored. Thanks to teh two of you, nobody has been killed or even seriously hurt. There are a number of burns, and several peopole who were bruised in the stampede of panic, but everyone is alive. More imporatnlyt they haves seen what you can do.
Councillor Hearthmount retakes centre stage. "As I believe i was saying, this is Ravengro and we are perfectly capable of seeking expert help when it is offered. As some of you may know, I was in fact at the late Professors house only a day or so ago and I notice these two individuals who have a history of working closely with the Professor. I have no hesitation in asking them for their assistance in this matter and I am sure that they would be willing to do so, if only to honour the memory of their former mentor."
He gives a slight bow and acknowledges the scattered applause that is sent his way. He then turns to you both. "Please, come forward and tell us what course of action you have to suggest."
Cathy throws a glance at her brother - he seemed to have the ideas on what to do, but she is better at public speaking. "OK, so, uh. Everything seems to have started going wrong since the Professor died at the prison. We think that something happened there and we need to investigate." Growing with confidence as she continues to speak, she gives Hearthmount a cold smile. She hasn't forgotten how dismissive he was to Kendra. "All that needs to be settled is the matter of our fee for services rendered."
She gives Alexi a meaningful look, hoping that her brother keeps his mouth shut. Paladins have a bad tendency to offer to work for nothing, but a girl has expenses. Nice clothes, fancy hotels and good food don't buy themselves, after all.
Alexi meets his sister's glance, picking up on what she's putting down. "Rest assured that we will get to the bottom of what is going on in this town. I swear by Iomedae's light," he vows, leaving things at that.
Hearthmount is less than impressed by CAthy's extortion attempt, but she smiles sweetly enough at him and the council is desperate enough that after some haggling it is agreed that they will pay you 300 gold to investigate. AFter some more bargaining it asgreed to 300 gold each.
Kendra tries to keep the amusement from showing on her face as you seal the deal, and escorts you both back to the house where you make your preaparations for the following day.
Cathy grins as Hearthmount gives in. "Pleasure doing business with you. Come on, brother dearest. Let's go home."
The following morning she gets up early, with a look of determination on her face that is not normally there. She studies her spells for the day and after breakfast is keen to get on with exploring the prison.
Alexi performs his morning prayers to Iomedae before buckling on his heavy armor. "Let us go to Harrowstone. It is time to get to the bottom of this mystery."