Tide of Shadows

[Academia Nut]

"My bow!" The ghost said, rushing down to grab the object of obsession. For a brief moment she held it in her telekinetic grasp before her form dissolved into nothingness, dropping the weapon back into the water. It seemed the ghost was now at rest, although a proper burial would be best to make sure she stayed at rest.

[LadyTevar]

Ceridwen looked to Bartel. "We should bury her, so she can rest."

[Charon]

Eight made a groaning noise. "She has rested already, and taken up enough of our time. The body is dead and her fleshy spirit has moved on. We should make certain that our way out is secure and then move out."

[Rogue 9]

"No. We bury her. I'd rather she not come back, and I should think you'd prefer that as well," he said dryly, not bothering to hide the fact that he was referencing Eight's reaction to the ghost's wail.

[LadyTevar]

"Down here, or up above?" Ceridwen asked Bartel, ignoring Eight's grumbles. "We should bury the townsfolk as well... or preform a cremation." Silverstars actually preferred Cremation to burial, although the reason was never stated.

[Rogue 9]

"We don't have time to dig that many graves," Bartel said solemnly. "And the church is heavily desecrated, beyond my ability to reverse. Perhaps it would be best if the center of their faith became their pyre." He sighed. "As for the ghost... Hmmmm. Let me see, what are their burial practices..."

[Charon]

Eight shot the paladin a look as she suggested burying all of the dead. Without a true face, it was impossible to say for certain what the construct was thinking, but it wasn't hard to guess.

"Then while you are wasting time here I will at least set the church for burning to save us time."

With that the construct walked back to the rope and tested it to make certain it would hold his weight again, before he began the climb up.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ophidia walked up to the church from which came that truly awful stench. He poked his head in, and saw the parishioners sitting neatly at their pews, decomposing rather nicely in the warm summer air.

He definitely did not want to go in there, but didnt have much choice if he wanted to find out what had happened. He spoke a quick word and activated his mask's detect magic function, then walked in side.

His goggles however did nothing to protect him from the horrible foul stench and the wizard doubled over and wretched out what he had for breakfast. A hissing sound could be heard behind him. When he was done dry-heaving about half a minute later he looked back at his familiar

"Naja" he said in a low voice, almost like a hiss itself "Laugh it up, because you get to come in here next"

The extremely large king cobra shook his head. He was not in the least needed in there. There was no danger save for an assault on his masters dignity

"I just had to give you a piece of my soul didn't I?" said the wizard

"You never did make good decisions that way master"

"No I suppose not"

The wizard walked to the back of the church, trying as hard as he could not to actually breathe. The priests records would be there, among other things. After rifling through the priests quarters he finally found the documents. Names and everything.

Then he stopped, and looked around some more. Scanning the area with his Detect magic spell active.

[Academia Nut]

There were no magical auras that Ophidia could detect, although there was a slight problem. While he had found the main ledger, there was about a dozen other leather bound tomes that could contain potential information on what had occurred. The only way to really be sure was to check them all... which was impossible in the current stench. He could simply take them all out, although that would take several trips, or he could leave them behind.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ophidia pondered his choices. He could either take several trips and get every tome, or he could leave them behind and let them burn when he immolated the church. To him the answer was obvious. he could not let books burn. That would be a travesty. He picked up as much as he could, and started hauling books out until he got them all outside and in the safe and loving coils of a nearly 20 foot long cobra. The he went back in and started rummaging in earnest, looking for any clue.

OOC:
taking 20 on search

[Academia Nut]

While picking up a pile of books, a small, slim book slipped out from between one of them, having been hidden inside. Within was small, precise handwritten script set with dates. It seemed that the priest of this church had maintained a personal journal of some sort.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Hmmm... Jackpot" the wizard said in a very satisfied voice as he thumbed through the slim book. He shuttled back everything he could find under the watchful eye of his familiar. Once everything was done he reached into his pack and pulled out a torch and his set of flint and steel. He was not about to waste magic on setting a church on fire.

[Academia Nut]

"Going to burn the evidence now are you?" A soft voice noted behind Ophidia as a blade found its way next to his throat. "And don't event think about having your snake retaliate, we're very quick with our bows."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"No. If I had done this and was burning evidence, I would have done it before the bodies decomposed like they are. Go on in, the stench speaks for itself. You will notice the books I collected. Church records, and the Priests journal. I was collecting evidence not trying to burn it. The church is to be their funeral pyre, I even have their names and know the proper prayers" The wizard replied, shooting a message to Naja while sweat poured from his brow that said "and you didnt see them coming, how?" The snake did the cobra equivalent of shrug, even as he hissed extremely loudly at these new and decidely less than friendly strangers.

[Academia Nut]

There was a slight shift on the blade followed by a pair of small shapes wrapped in dark cloaks that made them nearly invisible in the darkness. Halfling rangers, the elite scouts of the caravans of small folk that wandered the vast plains. If they didn't want to be seen or heard, they simply wouldn't be seen or heard.

After a moment one of the ones that went in to the church came back and said, "Everyone's been dead for at least a day."

The blade was retracted from his throat and the voice commanded, "Stand up tall one, and tell us, have you seen Amelie?"

Meanwhile, when Eight's head stuck out of the well he discovered it a ring of rather angry looking halflings around him pointing bows down at his head.

[Charon]

The construct paused in surprise at the sight of the halflings. "Oh great. More of the little fleshies. I suppose you're here to kill us for knowing too much?"

[Academia Nut]

There was a slight shocked blinking before the leader of the group of archers asked, "Tell us what you were doing down that hole now construct."

[Charon]

The near-featureless head turned to look at the halfling that had spoken. "Golem on Golem violence. What are you doing up here?"

[Academia Nut]

"We're looking for our scout Amelie and the ones who destroyed our caravan, and you're looking awfully suspicious coming out of a hole in the ground in the dead human village," the halfling replied darkly.

[LadyTevar]

Ceridwen heard the construct rumbling. "Eight? Who are you talking to?" She glanced at Fehl, starting away down the tunnel. "Volemack, bring Fehl back here." she said, simply wanting the party together, not thinking of how the little dragon might carry out that request.

[Charon]

"And you're looking awfully suspicious what with the pointing arrows at my head." The construct did not move however. "Besides, even if I had the power to single-handedly wipe out a human village, I wouldn't have stuck around. Villages getting wiped out tends to bring all sorts of adventuring types, like myself for instance." Eight almost looked like he was about to go on but stopped short.

"Never heard of an Amelie though, well, not recently anyway. But there was a dead halfling down this hole. This once-fleshie ghost kept going on and on about her bow, being dropped in the water down there for so long probably ruined it."

[Academia Nut]

The halflings looked nervously amongst each other before relaxing their bows and saying, "That sounds like Amelie all right. You said you found her body? How did she die?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

The wizard got up and walked over to his familiar, checking him to make sure he was OK. Then he grabbed the journal and started speed-reading the pages, starting in the rear quarter and going to the end, looking for anything that might indicate the underlying problem

"I am assuming that necromancy was involved? Those people died too... quietly to die from anything but starvation or magic. Also, how was your caravan attacked?" His voice was low, drawing out S's with sharp and hard sounding consonants.

"The two may or may not be related"

[Academia Nut]

The halfling scout leader, a lithe looking male, looked uncomfortable for a moment before he said, "We don't know. We were away from the caravan for a day on standard scouting, but then they were overdue at the reandevous point so we went back over the expected course and... everyone was dead. Just fallen over dead, not a wound on their bodies, not a pock mark or anything. We then made to contact one of our long range scouts, but she's overdue too. This little human settlement was the last place she was supposed to stop before heading back to the caravan... only it looks like whatever struck us struck them too."

Inside the journal there was... nothing of importance, at least directly. The only two details that sprang out was that the second last entry was dated three days ago, while the last entry had not been given enough time for the ink to dry and thus it was an absolute smear with no recognizable information, other than some clue as to the writer's state of mind.

One of the scouts returned to the leader and said, "We found at least one individual and possibly a group down a well, they claim to be investigating as well."

Meanwhile, down the well in the chamber Fehl discovered a number of rooms beyond the archway the construct had been guarding. Most of them were empty and bare or had the ceilings collapse on them sometime in the centuries this place had been buried, but there was one room where chunks of marble had been in the process of being cut into statues shortly before abandonment, and in particular there was a large wooden trunk that looked in excellent condition for its age, somehow having avoided the worst of the moisture down here such that little decay had occurred.

There was also one other room with something of interest: what appeared to be a altar of some sort with an idol set on it. A closer examination would be required.

[Rogue 9]

Bartel was getting concerned. There was nothing he could do to help Eight with whoever was at the top of the well, so he turned and called down the passageway after Fehl. "Fehl! Have you found anything? We may have a situation on the surface!"