The
trio first set out to return to the sheriff, so they could report
their findings. Benjan was less happy than they expected at the
news. “It just doesn’t make sense. All of the evidence points
to Gibbs, but I believe he’s telling the truth when he says he
didn’t do it.”
“Maybe he was sleepwalking?” Santino asked.
“That’s one hell of a case of sleepwalking,” Benjan said. He sighed. “We’ll keep the night watch alert just in case something more is going on. Just to be safe.”
“Need any help?” Santino asked.
“I won’t turn it down if you’re volunteering.”
“So, does this mean you forgive me for the rats?”
Benjan pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off a headache. “Just… please, don’t get up to your shenanigans.”
“So, can I keep the knife?”
“No. It’s evidence.” Benjan left to go put the blade away. Out of sight, out of mind, after all.
“Damn.” He turned to the others. “So, what now?”
“I’d like to talk to Father Grimburrow about the dreams, and this book,” Natalya said, holding up the mysterious tome that had appeared while she was sleeping. “Unless you can think of someone who might be better equipped to talk about something like that.”
“No, I believe that the good father would be just the right man to talk to,” Heimish said.
With that, the trio headed off. It was late afternoon and the sun was well into its descent as the party reached the Temple of Pharasma. Outside, Acolyte William was toiling in the gardens. When asked, he told them that Father Grimburrow would be inside the temple proper, so they headed inside.
They found the priest at the altar, saying his afternoon prayers. After a few minutes he rose carefully from his knees. “So, what can I do for you today?” he asked.
“We had a few questions, possibly of a spiritual nature, that we were hoping you might be able to help with,” Heimish said. “Natalya?”
Natalya explained her dreams, then each of the others added in theirs in turn. After listening, Father Grimburrow considered it. “These have been troubling days lately. Are you sure that you simply aren’t having dreams based on stress?”
Natalya showed him the book. “When I awoke from my dream, I found this. It hadn’t been there when I went to sleep.”
Grimburrow read through the book for a few minutes. “My, there may be more to this than I thought.”
“He pretended to be one of your clergymen,” Santino said.
“More than just one of mine,” Grimburrow said. He returned the book to Natalya. “I’ll see what I can -”
He was interrupted as the door to the temple flew open and Alvin rushed in. “Father! There’s trouble in the cemetery!”
“What’s going on?” Heimish asked.
“Someone’s desecrating a crypt!”
Santino’s eyes lit up. “A crypt, you say?” His lips curled back into something between a grin and a snarl. “Show me where. I’ll give those hooligans a taste of Hell, so they aren’t surprised when they get to the other side.”
It could potentially have something to do with everything else going on, so Natalya had no reason to say no, so she followed along as Alvin, leaning on Santino while he caught his breath, led the way to the crypt.
As they walked, Santino grilled Alvin for information. “Were you able to tell who it was?”
“I,” Alvin gasped, “didn’t get close enough.”
“Why not?”
“There,” Alvin wheezed, “were two of them and one of me.”
“Are you alright, lad?” Heimish asked.
“I don’t,” Alvin panted, “run much.”
As they got closer, they began using the headstones to hide their approach. Eventually, they heard the sounds of someone striking a crypt door. Heimish put his finger to his lips and motioned for the others to wait for a moment. He then carefully crept forward.
To his horror, Heimish found three zombies attacking the crypt. One was missing an arm, another was mostly intact, but the third was something else entirely. It was missing its head, but it was crawling on the ground, also striking at the crypt.
And Heimish was pretty sure that body looked familiar.
“Sod,” he breathed before he crept back to the others. “It’s not people. The dead have risen and are attacking the crypt for some reason. And I think one of the corpses belonged to Petrus.”
“Petrus?!” Natalya gasped. “If it’s more zombies, my blade won’t be very effective. Let’s try these,” she whispered, pulling out a couple small bottles of oil and some fabric to use as fuses. She handed one to Heimish and they quickly rigged up improvised incendiary devices.
Natalya led the way, sneaking up and hurling a lit flask at the zombie on the right. As luck would have it, it didn’t catch, but it did douse the monster in oil. Santino rushed past her, thrusting with the point of his umbrella and somehow managing to ignite the oil-soaked zombie.
The zombie retaliated, with Santino’s burning target wheeling around and striking him with a heavy blow. Meanwhile, the other two zombies ignored the party, continuing to attack the crypt.
Heimish flung his flask of oil at the zombie on the left. Luck, or possibly the will of the Black Butterfly, was on his side, and the one-armed zombie burst into flame. The zombie turned around and attacked the nearest target, once again Santino.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Santino whimpered. “That hurt a lot.”
The first zombie fell to another blow from Santino as Petrus’ corpse managed to break open the door, which creaked inwards on its hinges. Natalya leapt forward and thrust at the prone corpse. Her blade pierced through the soft flesh, doing little damage.
Heimish quickly healed some of Santino’s wounds, and then Alvin stepped forward. “Perish, foul abominations!” he choked out, channeling energy against the foes, which didn’t even seem to notice.
The one armed zombie, still smoldering, struck Santino again. “Oh, that’s it,” he said. He cracked his neck, and his jaw popped as he clenched it. Then he leapt forward, biting at the zombie.
Heimish continued to try healing his wounds, made more difficult by the angry man’s movements and Alvin trying to hold himself up on the preacher’s coat to avoid collapsing. Meanwhile, Petrus’ corpse flailed at Natalya, who tried parrying but was unable to get clean deflection to unbalance the creature due to its wild, unpredictable movements. But at least it didn’t hit her, since it couldn’t see her.
Natalya dodged around past the flailing corpse and into the doorway of the crypt, where she could flank the smoldering zombie with Santino, taking a blow from the zombie’s wild flailing as she moved. She then struck, once more dealing minimal damage, but it was enough to distract the zombie. Taking his cue, Santino leapt in and bit with all of his might, tearing the zombie’s head clean off.
In Santino’s mouth was a large chunk of flesh, which he shook side to side like an animal trying to shred its prey. Heimish healed him once more, and then Alvin shouted, “BE HEALED!” as he channeled energy once more, trying to heal Natalya and Santino’s injuries, but accomplishing little before collapsing to the ground behind Heimish.
Natalya then finished off the prone corpse of Petrus with a well-aimed blow at the zombie’s heart before gaping at Santino, who was pulling rotten flesh from his teeth.
“Did I miss any?” he asked, pulling a last chunk of gore from his mouth. But before she could answer, Santino felt something strange from the crypt, whose door had creaked entirely open. He didn’t wait for a response, and headed inside, where he immediately spotted an old set of footprints leading deeper inside.
“Should we follow him?” Natalya asked Heimish. Heimish answered with a shrug as he hit her with more healing magic.
Alvin looked up. “Wait. Did he go inside?” he asked. “My face was down in the mud.”
“Yes,” Natalya said, finally deciding. “We should go after him. We need to find out what the zombies were after.”
Inside, Santino began hearing a pulsing sound within his head. “Okay, I’m not crazy, but I did get hit pretty hard.” Nonetheless, he continued onward, following the footprints.
The footprints ended at a sarcophagus, and as Santino approached, the thrumming in his head got louder. He didn’t even think about it, and began pushing open the heavy lid.
Hearing the sound of the stone scraping, Heimish grew worried. “What’s he doing?”
“I don’t know,” Natalya said. “We should hurry.”
The duo arrived just in time to watch a giant centipede crawl out of a crack in the wall and bite Santino. Heimish spotted another in the darkness behind them. “Watch out!” he said to Natalya, pointing as he cast a spell to bless their attacks while being bitten by the centipede.
Natalya drew her rapier and skewered the centipede that had bitten Heimish, while Santino reacted in anger at the centipede that had bitten him, biting it back and once more shaking it in his mouth until it stopped moving.
Natalya was pretty sure Santino was some kind of crazy person.
Santino tossed aside the limp centipede and immediately began opening the sarcophagus the rest of the way. From behind them, Heimish and Natalya heard footsteps.
“I really don’t know how the three of you can see in here without a torch,” Alvin called out. He had managed to cobble together a makeshift light source from a stick and some fabric taken from one of the zombies, and was currently trying to light it.
Santino got the sarcophagus open, and the crypt was bathed in a sinister red light. Santino’s lips curled in a wolfish grin as he reached into what had likely been Petrus’ cache of undead hunting supplies – there was certainly no body contained within – and took hold of the prize, a ruby the size and shape of a human heart that was the source of the evil glow.
As he lifted it to his breast, the light drained from the ruby and began flowing into him. Veins of deep carmine pulsed just beneath his skin as Santino began laughing deliriously.
“We should probably tell the town council about the zombies,” Alvin said as he was walking into the room. The acolyte’s torch dimmed as he entered the room, as if the sinister glow was absorbing the fire’s light. “Oh my,” he said, seeing Santino. “You should probably get that looked at.”
The glow faded and the veins of light disappeared. In Santino’s hands, the ruby had transformed into nothing more than a heart-shaped piece of red glass – beautiful, but no longer a valuable gem. “Are you okay?” Natalya asked, her rapier still in hand.
“Never better,” Santino replied, his lips pulled back into a wolfish smile.
0 Comments