The Unbeating Heart - Chapter 6

Stephan takes a look at the wand again, "If this was one of these creatures possessions while they were alive," he watches the pulsing runes on the wand, "I wonder..."
Quickly, he points what he thinks to be the tip at a tree a long ways from Thurgood and Syn, and any of the rest of the group, hoping for the same lightning bolt effect the ghoul-creature had on Syn.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder ring out, temporarily blinding and deafening Stephan, who stands there for a few seconds,
"WHOA!"

Nkosi, keeping a cautious eye on Stephan's experimentation with the wand, asks Slim, "Was there anyone in particular in the village who dealt with them often? To trade goods, perhaps? Did your wife ever travel there?"

"Lots of people. Most of them went to services there. ANd even those who didn't got their wine from them."

Syn looks around at the bodies on the ground. "Do you think it might be wise to see how many of the villagers are 'missing'? And, Slim, do you know how many 'monks' there were? It might give us a basis on how many opponents we could expect to fight. I would also feel better if all the remaining bodies were blessed and buried/burned so we don't have to deal with the whole village flanking us."

Slim pauses, "At least 2 dozen monks, maybe more."

Nkosi surveys the scene, counting the ghoulish remain. "So, if all the monks have likewise falled to undeath, many more could be at the monastery. Slim, please do as Syn asked: Look around the village and see if anyone is unaccounted for."
If Nkosi is aware that he's asking Slim to do an unpleasant thing (look through the bodies of his friends), he doesn't show it. He adds, "If any ARE missing, there is a chance they were taken alive for some reason."
He pauses to draw his thick robes even more tightly around him, then says, "I am puzzled by the ghouls' behavior. Their driving force is one of ... hunger. Yet the destruction of the village seems like an act of wanton violence ... more the sort of thing I would expect of *living* men."
He adds silently to himself, "And what of the creature that 'rode' on the back of Slim's woman? What was HER role?"

Syn watches as Nkosi looked at the scene and pulled his robes around himself. "No it is not normal. Did anyone besides me hear the leader yell out something about 'bringing the pretty one to the master'? I don't know if it is vanity talking or not, but I think they may have been referring to me. Maybe they need females for something. Or maybe it was some stuff that I have in common with Slim's wife."

At saying this his eyes turn to the armor the Ghouls were wearing. There is something odd about it...

Stephan puts away the wand after a few minutes of readjusting himself to reality, quickly enough to hear Slim say he'll need help.
"I'll gladly help...what was it you needed again?"

"Help would be nice," he says as he carries another body to the pile.

Syn sees Stephen put the wand away.
"Umm, Stephen, does that wand have an activation word or something like a button? If it is a button, you might not want to holster it where the button can get depressed. Lightning Bolts are fun to mess with. I got lucky and got caught in its path. Thank Goodness that bolt that was aimed for Nkosi didn't actually hit me. Oh and Well I am thinking about it, Nice Save there Slim. At first, I thought you were attacking Nkosi not trying to save him."

The paladin slowly begins to drag bodies towards a centralized location speaking to slim as he does so, "What did you and my comrades speak of friend?" He tries his best to prepare a customary pyre for a communal burning after a large combat.

"They wanted to know about the monastary where the monks came from."

Nkosi kneels down beside one of the ghouls, trying to ignore the rotting stench as he stares at the armor.

It has an odd look, less like armor than the skin of an insect. It reminds you almost of the shell of a crab...

"Thurgood, the rest of you, come here briefly," Nkosi calls out. "Have any of you seen the like of this before? This seems like no armor forged by man. It's more like that of the tomb beetles back in Mudar. Your opinions, please."
Nkosi grimaces, then rolls the ghoul's corpse over to look at its neck.

No marks on the neck. He does notice that the armor has seemingly grown into his skin.

Syn looks at the armor when Nkosi calls everyone over. When she sees him checking the neck, she reaches up and feels her neck to see if there is anything there.

She finds a little blood, but it seems to have clotted.

Trying not to panic, Syn walks over to Nkosi. Leaning down, she whispers to him "Maybe we should all have our necks checked. There is no telling if someone might have gotten neck wounds during the combat."

Cautiously touching the armor, Nkosi hears Syn's comments.
"Yes, you're right, Syn -- they DID show a greater interest in you. Perhaps we should go to the monas..."

The armor feels warm to the touch and seems to have its own pulse...

Nkosi snatches his hand back from the armor, then says coldly, "It's alive. This...armoring...is alive."

At the comment about the armor being alive, Syn visibly jumps back. "If the armor is living, where is the head and internal organs? Surely it needs some kind of brain and a heart to live. Unless it is a parasite and just takes what it needs from its host."

The armored knight removes his helmet and shield and lays them out on the ground as he moves about lifting bodies and moving to the area of the pyre.
At the mention of living armor he lays the body he carries aside and looks at the group through dangling sweat soaked strands of blonde hair with eyes hauntingly green, "The question is do we burn the living things that shielded us from our undead foes?"
He takes a few heavy steps toward the group and their interesting find and gestures with his hand to the body, "I myself, besides being abhored of the idea that someone breeds the living to protect the undead, would much like to find the place where they breed these things and handle it. If indeed the thing does live." He then returns to his gory work stacking bodies and saying prayers for them as he carries hoping that Kelemvor will shield their spirits from the ires and machinations of necromancers pilfering the gate to the land of the dead for their own personal gain.

Responding to Thurgood, Nkosi says, "Yes, I think we should burn everything, including this 'living armor.' It's not of natural creation, of this I feel certain. I agree that we find the source of its creation -- anyone who would willingly make such things for the undead must be brought to justice. His actions insult the gods."

With a very frighted and teary look to her eyes, Syn's voice wavers a little as she asks Nkosi, "Could you check my neck? There is some blood and stuff on it. I want to make sure that I am not infected. I don't want to be a host to something evil. I would rather that one of you kill me here and now if that were to happen."

"Of...course," he says, somewhat puzzled. "Kneel here beside me and let me look." Turning to the others, he says, "It might be wise if we all examined each other for any sign of ... contamination."
Remembering Syn's earlier concerns, he whispers to her, "Is there anything you wish to explain? You seemed very concerned about being infected." As he says so, he gently smoothes the hair away from the back of her neck. His fingers come partially into contact with her skin (his gloves were slightly ripped during the hand-to-hand combat), and Syn will definitely feel an icy shiver at the contact.

He sees a bit of dried blood, and some scratches. It looks like she had a splinter in her neck, but it is gone now.

Stephan puts the wand away, seeing if the blue runes stop pulsating as he does so, then he turns to the rest of the gorup, still visibly shaken from his experience with the bolt, and still slightly deaf.
"WHAT DID WE FIND OUT?" he shouts from where he's standing, "HELLO?"

Syn shivers slightly at Nkosi's touch. Whispering back to him, "Slim's wife was an entertainer and so am I. I don't really want to end up dead or possessed. It is hard for me to imagine being caught in my body as a prisoner and not being do anything. I guess that is why I am a little fearful of being infected. Plus I have dreams of being a Meistersinger in my homeland and being dead or possessed would kind of kill that dream." Syn smiled and laughed a little at the pun.

Nkosi nods as Syn finishes speaking. "I can safely say that your dreams are intact ... at least for the moment. You have a couple of slight scratches on your neck -- perhaps from the blast of the first lightning bolt -- but you seem otherwise fine."
He straightens up and grabs the feet of the ghoul he was examining, dragging it toward the pile that Thurgood is making.
Slim has finished his search for absent villagers and we've burned the bodies," he says, "I suggest we eat and then think about our next action. A trip to the monastery is likely in order. While I don't believe the ghouls were responsible for this massacre, we might still find some clues there."

"Thanks Nkosi. Has Everyone else been checked?" Syn said as she fixed her air.
Looking at all the bodies, Syn sighs, "What a waste. Could you imagine some of the stories that everyone could have told. I am sure there were some great ones. And now they, and the people of this village are gone."
Syn walked over to a body and started dragging it to the pile that Thurgood had started.
As she worked, Syn hummed a tune and everyonce in a while words could be heard coming from her.

The paladin piles the last body onto the pyre and nods stepping back and viewing the entirety of the pile with a pang of sorrow. He then begins to recite a Kelemvorish prayer that will ferry the dead spirits to the afterworld without out the interfering of some devilish necromancer. The words of prayer are straight forward but soothing and when the paladin finishes he looks to someone for any more words to be spoken and waits for someone to light the whole thing.

Slim has begun to say words of his own dialect, it sounds soft and joyful, and even without it being translated you can feel the love of them. It brings to mind a mothers warm embrace, and a bright sun shining down on fields of emerald grasses, nights curled up with a lover by a dying fire...
All that and more. The prayer tunrs more solemn, you see a single tear streak down his cheek, and Slim curls his hands into tight, white knuckled fists. Then crumples to his knees and burries his face into his hands, sobbing.
"Goodbye my love. Time will bring us together as death tore us apart." you hear him whisper through his sobs.

Syn walks over to Slim. She rests her hand on his shoulder and says "Those that have done this will be punished."
Looking at the pile, Syn says

"We are gathered here to remember and honor the dead.
We send their spirits on the journey to the afterlife.
We send their bodies to rejoin the earth.
We keep their memories so they may live and others may learn from their deeds.

em>"Flames that consume and brighten the night.
Ignite this cloth and make things right."

Nkosi stands well back from the pyre, noticeably more so than anyone else. As Syn finishes speaking, he calls out in a loud but respectful voice:
"Osiris, lord of Duat, monarch of the Underworld, guide the spirits of these people to your kingdom and to the Afterlife that follows. Look not upon this fiery end to their physical form, for I know that the funeral pyre is not your way. Instead, I ask that you look upon the strength and purity of their spirits.
"Anubis, watcher of the dead, guard this site. Protect it from further evil and soothe the restlessness of those spirits that seek to remain."

After he finishes speaking, Nkosi glances around quickly, as though he heard something. He then says to the others gathered around the pyre, "If we are going to the monastery, we should go now. Better to find and battle the 'master' of these creatures while we still have hours of daylight ahead of us."

Slim nods. He stands up, "You hear that! We are going to find you, you bastard! We are gonna find you and Make you pay!" he shouts.