"Musfugbl."  That was the first thing that the gnome said when she opened her eyes and saw the night sky up above.  Moon and stars, broken only by the ring of human heads looking down at her.

"Did I die?  I think I saw myself dead.  Or maybe I saw myself not dying.  Skelies!"  Pisca sat bolt upright, which might have bumped a few human heads if she had been a human as well.  "Where did the skelies go?"  The answer lay all around her in the bone fragments that littered the ground.  "Oh," said the gnome.  "Good job.  Someone."

"I suppose I have you to thank for my life again, Lysa."  Pisca pick herself up off the ground and dusted herself off.  "See Lysa.  You are a hero.  Heroes save lives.  You saved mine."  The gnome recovered her hat from where it lay on the ground and pushed the crown back into shape.  "Well, I wasn't expecting skelies.  But we can't let that sort of thing stop us from finding out what we came for, can we?  Jamming the big hummie had down on top of her mass of strawberry blond hair, Pisca turned again to the door of the crypt.  "Lets go in and find out what was done."

A few gestures and a word of power brought four more floating lights which proceeded the gnome through the doors.

---

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights.
HP 7/9

Cato's face twisted into a bitter smile as the last skeleton dropped from his acid bolt.  He was about to call for Liseth, but the woman was already there, and in a moment, Pisca had regained consciousness.  Cato let out a breath, and winced, the deep wound the skeleton had given him suddenly hurting now that the adrenalin from the fight had worn off.

"Liseth," the wizard panted, "would you mind?  I'm afraid the skeletons roughed me up as well."  He gave a weak cough.  "Not as much as Pisca..."

The wizard trailed off as Pisca bounded into the tomb, apparently oblivious to further dangers.

"Pisca, wait for the rest of us!  We should be careful in there.  Whoever raised those skeletons could have set other traps for us!"

Cato concentrated for a second and called forth once again the first spell he had ever mastered.  He wasn't sure why his wizard's sight had failed him so badly before, but perhaps the stone of the crypt had blocked out the necromancy from the skeletons.  Certainly, if there was anything else in there broadcasting necromancy or any other magic, he would see it before it hurt anyone.  Well, before it hurt anyone but Pisca.


OOC:
Detect Magic, again.  Scanning the crypt now that I can see the inside.

This message was last edited by the player at 23:56, Fri 04 Oct 2013.

Liseth finally let her relief show when Pisca sat upright and then stood, "No you didn't die; I can't do anything with the dead..."  She flushed when Pisca now was calling her a hero, but reached out a hand to try and stop the gnome when she moved to enter the crypt again, "Wait!  Ms Freemish let Mr Storval go first.  He has a spear and armor!"

But the girl withdrew her attempt to stop Pisca when Cato called to her in obvious pain.  Liseth stood up a bit shamefully, "Oh!  I'm so sorry Mr Crispin!  I know you're hurt too, I don't know what I was thinking!"  She quickly made her way to the wizard's side and laid a hand glowing with white energy on the injury that the skeleton had give him, closing her eyes and whispering a prayer.

The bleeding stopped and the wound closed, leaving only a red welt where it used to be.  "That should be better for you."  Liseth then walked back to Kerr's side, certain that there was no way she would be entering that vault first.  Or alone.

"Kerr, that was amazing what you did! I didn't know that you were so strong!"  She was still a bit awed by the power Kerr displayed when he destroyed all those skeletons.  "And you can speak the Celestial tongue too?  Did you learn that from Father Zantus?"

23:49, Today: Liseth Thoradin rolled 5 using 1d8+3. Cure Light Wounds.

5 Hit Points for Cato it seems.

Kellan let out a sigh of relief as Pisca came around. Despite himself he glanced back a few times as she made her recovery, but still had the majority of his attention focused on the entrance to the vault.

"So I'll be honest" he began "I thought that the living dead were a myth...up until I saw those things" he shifted his weight, the armor jingling softly.

"Is there anything I should know about them? I would make sense that the Kerr and Liseth would be gifted with the power to do...well, to do that" he sounded impressed "But anything else? Holy water or fire or something? Can we get infected with it?"

As Pisca moved to go inside he looked to her "I can go first if you would like"  he offered as she drew even with him,

The gnome tipped her head back, favoring the human with a quizzical look.  She looked up at the towering walls of the crypt, imparting upon the building much the same.

"Well, if you wish.  But, from where I stand, the building isn't really that big.  Four skelies come out.  How many more can be waiting inside?"  She hadn't even drawn her bow.  "I think we've seen our excitement for the evening, our little surprise from the person who organized this, who broke in during the festival."

"But that means we know more about him or her or it.  Raising the dead.  There aren't too many people around who can do that.  Or who'd want to.  Narrows the possibilities.  Raising the dead.  Knowing about the festival, the opening of the new cathedral.  Knowing about this crypt.  How many people could that be?"

"Lead.  Don't lead.  I don't think it matters.  But I think that the person we need to speak with after this is Father Zantus.  He may be new - well, sort of new, kind of new - in town, but he may know something of the history of such people here."

With a sweep of her arm, the gnome indicated that the guardsman proceed, directing her lights from behind to illuminate the way in.

---

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights.
HP 7/9

---

---

Kerr’s eyes widened as the three skeletons burst apart and the fourth staggered before Cato finished it off.  “Did you SEE that?!?!”  The young acolyte exulted.  “Father Zantus said I was one of best he’d seen at . . .”  Suddenly he realized what happened with Pisca.  “Oh, no.”  He said, rushing forward to help, but Liseth was there first with her healing magic.  He shared a grin with her as Pisca’s injuries knitted themselves together under the divine influence of Liseth’s spells.  He added his own healing magic to bring both her and Cato back to full health.

Kerr blushed and dipped his head at Liseth’s praise.  “Father Zantus told me the energy I could summon to dismiss the undead was unusually powerful.  I’ve just never had the chance to put it into practice before.”  He gave her a gratified smile.  “I guess he was right!”  He took her arm as she moved next to him.  “And I’ve been able to speak Celestial ever since I was consecrated to Desna.  Father Zantus says it’s her divine gift to me.”  He blushed again, as if he didn’t feel worthy of receiving such gifts.

Kerr looked at Kellan and shook his head.  “Skeletons can’t infect you with anything.  Well, nothing necromantic.  I suppose they could infect you with some sort of normal disease,” he stopped talking at Kellan’s panicked expression and sighed.  “I’m not helping, am I?”  He laughed.  “The short answer is that you don’t have anything to worry about.”

OOC:  Kerr casts Cure Light Wounds on Cato and Pisca, bringing them back to full health.

---

---

---

---

As Pisca’s lights danced their way into the tomb, everyone could see that the interior was curiously undisturbed for a crypt that so recently contained four skeletons.  The tomb was clean, aside from some sort of robe crumpled on the floor, and much less musty than one might have expected.  The inside of the vault was made of white stone, and statues of Desna, Erastil, Sarenrae, and Iomedae gracing the four corners of the room.   Sarcophagi were inserted into the walls; all but one remained undisturbed.

That one sarcophagus had been pulled out from the wall and opened; you could see that it was totally empty.  Whatever had been interred inside it was there no longer.

“Holy Desna!”  Kerr made a warding sign with his hand.  “That’s Father Tobayn’s tomb!  I was here for his burial.”  He moved slowly towards the plundered coffin, stopping a respectful distance away.  “But where is his body?  And from where did those four skeletons come?  None of the other sarcophagi are disturbed!”  He looked at the assembled group.  “I have no idea what this means.”

---

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 14:58, Sat 05 Oct 2013.

"Tobayn."  The gnome pronounced the name as though tasting it, rolling it around in her mouth, as though, through this act, she might gain somehing, this might, in some fashion or another, put her in possession of some secret knowledge.  "Tobayn.  Ezakien Tobayn, right?"  The gnome nodded her head.  "He died in that fire during the Late Unpleasentness."

"Tell me Kerr Mollin.  Did Father Tobayn favor a particular diety?  That diety wouldn't happen to be Desna, would it?  Same as yours?  And you wouldn't happen to know whether or not he had a rival back then, would you?  Maybe a devotee of a rival god?"

It wasn't difficult to pick a god from the pantheon.  Not after the speech that Father Zantus gave at the opening of the festival.  "Maybe ... " speculated the gnome, "a devotee of, say, Lamashtu?"

---

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Sat 05 Oct 2013.

Liseth smiled and released a laugh when Kerr revealed that his knowledge of the angelic language was a direct blessing from Desna.  "I started speaking like that when I was still just a little girl.  Not long after Father Garrick declared that I had a powerful divine connection."  She laughed again at the memories, "Daddy and Nivlak were at their wits end, I think.  From what they told me later, whenever I spoke the words would come out in a mixed jumble of Celestial and normal speech.  They had to beg Father Garrick to visit all of the time just so that he could translate what I was saying for them."

With a radiant smile Liseth grabbed Kerr's hands and stared up into his eyes, [Language unknown: "Io iou ri leswasons ri atre thu.  Ic vorti ncith lica urons."]

Releasing Kerr's hands when Kellan asked about undead, Liseth took the other acolyte's arm again.  After Kerr finished telling about diseases that undead might carry she spoke as well, an edge of fear detectable in her voice, "No no no, Mr Storval.  Undead are very real.  They are everything that is bad and evil wrapped up in a scary package with claws and teeth and glowing or empty eyes..."  Some might find Liseth's intense fear of the undead to be irrational considering her capabilities.  But to her there was nothing more rational than being afraid of them.  "They are anti-life, and exist only to bring pain and death to the living."

She reluctantly entered the vault alongside Kerr after it was determined that there were no more undead waiting within.  Her face went ashen when it was discovered that one of the sarcophagi was raided and the priest's body removed, "They went to all of this trouble attacking Sandpoint with Goblins so that they could steal Father Tobayn’s body?  That's...that is just evil."  Liseth bit her lip before continuing, "They wouldn't...want to do any undead magic on him...would they?"

Taking notice of the crumpled robe on the floor of the vault, Liseth took a step backwards and away from it; getting behind Kerr as though she expected a tide of undead to spring forth from it.  She pointed at the robe, "That shouldn't be there."

OOC: Knowledge (Religion) to determine what Liseth knows about undead in general?  Chances are I might know more than she does, and I don't want to share too much.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:56, Sat 05 Oct 2013.

Kellan ambled in cautiously then stood in the rear corner as Pisca and Lizeth examined the tomb. His silence was a pensive one, he had known Father Tobayn as a child, not well, but he had been a pillar of the Sandpoint community. What stuck in his kind the most was remembering how miserable his parents had looked during the late unpleasantness.

He whispered a short prayer to Abadar, hoping that these mysterious circumstances were not the beginning of another trying time.

"Abadar, strengthen our walls and harden our hearts that that we may endure such assaults on the sanctity of our community, please look after Father Tobayn in death, and guide us to his defilers so that we may see justice done upon them."

It was silent enough to hopefully not disturb anybody, and when he finished he continued a more or less silent vigil over the others as they investigated,
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Sun 06 Oct 2013.

"I like Desna because she's a star goddess," Pisca added as she turned her attention to the robe in the center of the crypt. After going through the pockets she holds one side of the robe up to Sheriff Belor.  "Excuse me.  Could you hold this for a moment?"  The other side, she gives to young Kerr Mollin.

 "I'm going to have to get a starknife someday," Pisca continues as she circles the two men holding up the robe, examining it from both the front and back.  "Did you know that the Shoanti of the Lyrune-Quah hold Desna sacred.  All of their women warriors carry starknives."

"I wonder how they managed the skelies.  They must have been waiting down here for pretty long.  Good thing Father Zantus didn't open that door himself, huh?"

---

Knowledge local for any connections to Lamashtu.
Perception for examining the robe and the crypt as a whole.
Knowledge Arcana to know how one might leave four skeletons in waiting down here for two days or so.

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights.

Cato took a second to compose himself before following the others into the small tomb.  He had certainly seen violence before, but nothing quite so fast and random as that.  He had been killed before he even had a chance to do anything.  At this was in the relative safety of Sandpoint.  Following this through would likely involve confronting goblins on their home territory, which promised to be a great deal more dangerous.  Plus, they now had to deal with whoever had animated the skeletons.

"Whoever did this is probably a great deal more powerful than us.  Raising undead isn't something that Liseth or I could do, even if we wanted to.  Which means we're probably looking at a relatively experienced wizard or cleric.  Of course, it would take a less powerful wizard or cleric to simply command existing undead.  But then that still leaves open the question of how they got here.  Liseth, you didn't see any skeletons tracks outside, right?"

Cato nodded at Pisca.  "Liseth and Kerr, you must know a lot more than any of us what gods might oppose Desna.  Certainly, this seems to be a direct challenge to the gods worshipped here in Sandpoint."



OOC:
With a 10 on a knowledge Arcana, he'd get an 18, so Cato probably knows the basics of low-level spells.
Keeping my detect magic up, looking for more auras.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Sun 06 Oct 2013.

---

---

Kerr nodded at Pisca.  “That’s right.  Father Tobayn was a priest of Desna.  But he was universally loved.  He did not have any rivals or detractors, even among the five founding families.  And it is rare that they unanimously agree on anything.”  He shrugged.  “I can’t think of anyone in Sandpoint who would want to do this to Father Tobayn’s remains just out of spite.  Maybe he fell out with someone before he arrived at Sandpoint?  That’s a complete guess, though,” Kerr admitted, “anything like that would have been well before my time.”

The young acolyte grasped Liseth’s hands in his own and smiled as she recounted how she had come to speak Celestial.  “That’s a lot like what happened to me.  Only in my case, Father Zantus had seen it before so he knew what was happening and explained it all to me.”  He gave her a hug.  “I can’t imagine how confused you must have been!”

Kerr drew back as Liseth spoke to him in their shared language.  “,” he responded, staring into her eyes.

Kerr wrenched his gaze from Liseth to look over at Cato.  “What deities are opposed to Desna?  Well,  Lamashtu certainly, they’ve been warring forever.  Desna also clashes with Rovagug and Zon-Kuthon for control of the night.   My Lady wishes for it to be a time of wonder and beauty, not fear and death.”

“So priests of those three dieties would be actively opposed to Desna’s works, although I don’t even know any followers of any of those gods, much less ones that would be set on defiling Father Tobayn’s remains.”  The young acolyte looked as if he was struck by a thought, then glanced over at Pisca.  “Although, following up on what Pisca said, Father Zantus might have died if he opened this crypt alone.”  Kerr looked concerned.  “So maybe this is some sort of attack on Desna?  I just don’t know enough to say.  This is certainly our first problem with the undead, at least as far as I can say.”  He held Liseth closer.  "I have a couple of starknives myself.  Maybe I should start carrying them more often."

---

---

"So it would seem that we don't have much to go on...other than the goblin attack itself." Kellan shifted his weight, the metal capped end of his pole axe clinking against the flagstone.

"Unless somebody knew Father Tobayn in his days before he came to Sandpoint, I doubt we are going to find much about him...it was some time ago and I would think that the fire destroyed most of his personal property."

Kellan moved over and looked at the space where the priest had been interned then back down at the robe, he looked a little sad at the thought of such a thing happening in his home town.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:50, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

"Wait!  You have starknives!"  The gnome whirled away from her examination of the robe, turning on the young acolyte and Improved Boyfriend of Lysa's.  Quite out of the blue she began repeating back some of the words that Liseth had said only moments before, "Nipo nipo, werint und heei thith n the iv."  But even before receiving a response, the gnome shook her head.  "No.  Never mind.  That couldn't possibly be right.  But I'll get it.  Some day."

"What I meant to say is that I'd be interested in seeing your starknives, Kerr Mollin.  But ... I don't suppose that's what I said at all.  Is it?"

"Oh well," she shrugged.  "I did find something interesting about this robe, though.  Whoever did this may not be a great deal more powerful than we are, Cato."  Tugging on the young wizard's sleeve, the gnome brings him around to a place from which he can see the tears in the robe.  She points to four places and the rips in the fabric where something has been torn away.

"One, two, three, four.  The skelies came from this magic robe.  Tear off a patch and it becomes an animated skeleton.  After the last one's been used, all you have left is an ordinary robe.

"That's how it was done.  Thank you, gentlemen, you can put the robe down now," she said to Sheriff Hemlock and Kerr Mollin.  Then, "I think you're right, Stomper.  I don't think we're going to find anything more in here tonight.  On the other hand, outside, though ...  Lysa, do you think you can tell how they left?  It can't be easy to carry a body out of here and hoist it over the wall.  Lets see where they went."

At this, the gnome directed her lights out the door of the crypt and followed in their wake.

---

Linguistics check to have made some sense of what Liseth said to Kerr.
Active Effects:  Dancing Lights.

Liseth paled slightly and shook her head violently at Cato's mention that she might ever be able to create undead.  She couldn't think of anything more horrifying than to willingly bring an undead into existence.  Why would anybody ever want to do that?  "No, no skeleton tracks were outside.  I suppose there could have been a skeleton wearing boots, that would make the track look like a normal person.  But skeletons don't weigh very much; their tracks wouldn't be as deep as a living person's."  She answered in response to Cato's question of her.

Nodding along with Kerr's explanation of Desna's divine opponents, Liseth kept her gaze fixed on the robe while Pisca examined it.  "I don't know anything about Father Tobayn, except that he held the position as Sandpoint's prelate before Father Zantus.  Maybe Father Zantus will know more about somebody that would want to desecrate his remains.  Or somebody who just hates Desna and Sandpoint."  She frowned when Kerr spoke about carrying starknives, "I don't like weapons.  But with everything that's been happening...goblins attacking the town, skeletons getting left in the Boneyard right next to the Cathedral...maybe it would be for the best."  The girl bit her lip for a moment in consideration, "Daddy taught me how to use some weapons.  Spears, maces, crossbows..."  She looked down, "But I don't think that I could bring myself to use them on a person.  Or even a goblin."

Her eyes widened in shock when Pisca finished her examination of the robe and Liseth held tighter to Kerr.  "It made the skeletons?!  They came from the robe?  Are you sure that its magic is gone?  What if it makes more?  We have to destroy it!  Burn it, or..."  She seemed to realize that she was making a spectacle of herself and stopped, "I'm sorry..."

It did prompt her into a fearful lecture on Undead though; perhaps compounded by Kellan's admission that he never thought they were even real before today.  "Skeletons like that are just the weakest and most common type of undead though.  You can't cut them or stab them with a sword or spear; they don't have any flesh on them.  You need to break them apart with a mace or a staff.  Holy water will always work on any undead though; it burns them like acid burns a living person.  But some undead are powerful and resistant to its effects.  And fire will usually work too."  Liseth cast her eyes towards Kellan, "See Mr Storval, Undead are very real.  They don't feel pain, they never get tired, they don't sleep or ever have to stop.  The only way to stop them is to destroy them.  But when you're fighting them, remember that they don't feel fear; you can't break their morale like you might when fighting a living opponent and make them flee.  Many undead, like those skeletons, they don't even have real minds.  They can't think or reason; they just want to kill the living."  She shuddered, "Some undead can think though.  Those are the really dangerous ones.  Be careful if you ever meet one."  Liseth clutched her holy symbol, "Because the only thing that can keep them at bay or make them flee is powerful magic or the divine power of the gods.  And sometimes even that doesn't work..."  She ended on a quiet note, reminded of how little she had managed to affect the undead with her own divine burst.  Once again thankful that Kerr was there to destroy them when she couldn't.

She breathed and calmed herself down, then watched as Pisca went to leave the vault, "I didn't see any other tracks, Ms Freemish.  They must have followed the same path back to the wall and climbed back over.  If there was six goblins they would have been able to carry Father Tobayn's remains easily enough.  And if they had rope they could have gotten back over the wall with them too."  She looked at Kerr then started to follow Pisca out of the vault, "But I suppose that I could check again, just to be sure.  I don't know what else they might have done though."

OOC: Another Survival roll?  Though I don't expect to find anything that I didn't see last time.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:34, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Cato nodded at Pisca.  "Yes, that's exactly what I was about to say.  That robe still has faint traces of magic.  I would come to the same conclusion as Pisca.  It was some kind of magical item, but its magic has now been completely consumed, so it was discarded here."

Cato cringed when he saw the Liseth's reaction.  "Sorry, Liseth, that wasn't what I meant."  He had a hard time admitting to the next part.  Cato didn't like admitting he didn't know something.  "I just meant...well, Necromancy is an area of magic that I'm not at all well-versed in.  Partly out of natural inclination,  and partly out of desire to avoid it, I never studied much necromancy.  I guess I never really wanted to know it that well."  Cato didn't want to mention his similar aversion to illusions, as that might raise too many questions.  Cato gave a harsh laugh.  "Little did I know, I'd end up being attacked by skeletons in this little town.  I might have down so more reading."

Cato followed the group out of the vault and waited for Liseth's conclusions.

"Did you know that it's legal in Kaer Maga to create undead?" said the gnome over her shoulder.  "Well, in parts of Kaer Maga, that is.  It's restricted to the Ankar-Te district.  They're called Twice-Born.  They're mindless and do odd jobs.  They're owned.  Like slaves."

"Kind of smelly, though.  Sort of ... an acquired taste, I suppose."

"That sounds horrible" Kellan replied as they filed out "Doesn't seem right that a man can't find any rest even in death...and can you imagine the type of person who would do such a thing?, then live with it on a day to day basis...just, bizarre"

Kellan looked around with an ever growing appreciation for Sandpoint as they stepped out into the brisk night air. This was his home after all, born and raised with all it's humble little habits and customs. There was a part of him that wanted to experience Magnimar or Kovosa of course, but the few young people who had left for such cosmopolitan pursuits had inevitably come back, more often than not with stories of crowded dirty streets and towering buildings.

He imagined that Magnimar must be full of people like Foxglove, with their fine impractical clothing and flowery speech.

He looked over to his newfound friends "Do you think it's safe to reopen the Boneyard?"

---

---

Sheriff Hemlock's face creased with concern as the group discovered both the looted sarophagus and that Father Tobayn's remains were not longer in it.  He looked worried as they exited the vault.

"I'd appreciate it if you all would keep tonight's events to yourselves.  The last thing we need is to start a panic amongst the townfolk with stories of walking skeletons in the Boneyard and the vanishing remains of beloved clerics."  He looked at Kellan.  "Kellan, you remember the stories people told about the resurrection of Chopper when that couple went missing for a few days a couple of years ago?  Given the goblin attack, who knows what stories they would come up with now?"

The bald-headed sheriff looked at each member of the group individually for a few seconds, as if making a decision, then nodded and spoke.  "I've spoken to the Mayor and Father Zantus, and with their authority I'd like to deputize each of you as a special unit, answerable only to me and Mayor Deverin, whose responsibility is to determine what happened here, who is behind it, and what threat that might pose to Sandpoint."

"I except Alergast from this request, because I need his leadership more than ever with the regular guard duties.  I also excuse Kerr, who Father Zantus needs for much the same reason.  But you four," here he nodded at Kellan, Cato, Pisca, and Liseth, "have proven both your mettle and your discretion over the past couple of days; I can't think of a quartet I'd rather have looking into this matter."

He coughed.  "Speaking of discretion, I'd also like your word that you will keep the subject of this investigation confidential."  He stopped talking and waited expectantly for a response.

[OOC: This is just about all I have planned for you guys this evening.  Feel free to respond to the sheriff and talk amongst yourselves and/or to anyone else you feel you need to as much as you like, but once you're done let me know and we'll move on to tomorrow's boar hunt.]

---

---

This message was last edited by the player at 06:11, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Kellan nodded in affirmation, doing his best to conceal his excitement at having been selected for the special detail.

"Yes sir, it will stay between us." He stated with confidence, a slight series of nods to the others. "I doubt this was an isolated incident, somebody went through a lot of work for all this, and I don't see the matter just fading away quietly. We will start fresh tomorrow and see what we can turn up"

Inwardly he was thinking that the boar hunt and his visit with Shayliss would probably take up most of the day, in turn he made a mental note to set aside some time to follow up on matters.

"I'll see you around" he stated to Alergast as he patted the man on his armored shoulder "I just received a little something from Taldor I am going to need your help with eventually" he cracked a faint smile to his old friend as he moved towards the exit.

OOC: Ready to proceed

"Hmm," the gnome humm'ed.  "I'd be glad to help," she said, after she'd thought things through.  "Because I hate a mystery.  Which reminds me, I'd like to see where this trail leads after they get to the other side of the wall.  Lysa?  What time do you usually wake up in the morning?  Do you think we could meet here to look over the ground on the other side of the wall before heading to the stables?"

Then Pisca tipped back her hat and under the light of her floating magic, she scrutinized the Sheriff.  There was a question on her lips, tickling like a curious butterfly.  What was the point of being deputized?  Why give them special authority when they couldn't even talk about what it was that they we're investigating?

The gnome opened her mouth to speak once.  Then twice.  But, in the end, she simply pursed her lips and asked, "Can we requisition weapons?  Cato needs a crossbow."

---

OoC: Good to go here.

After Pisca's brief description of the city, Liseth didn't have to think about it much before she decided that Kaer Maga was a place that she would never want to visit.  So far the only things that she knew of the city came from Pisca.  And a city full of gnome-eating bloatmages and undead servants (what kind of people would want to keep undead as their personal servants!?) sounded like a horrible place.

Liseth looked up from her second examination of the footprints on the ground and shook her head, "I can't find anything new.  If they did anything besides climb back over the wall, they must have done a really good job of hiding their tracks."  Then she stood up and listened to Sheriff Hemlock when he told everyone about deputizing them for a continuing investigation.

She swallowed; that was an awful lot of responsibility.  Likely dangerous too.  But the Sheriff wouldn't have included her if he thought that she wasn't able to help.  And Liseth did want to help; especially if there was somebody telling goblins to attack people, leaving horrible undead skeletons right next to the Cathedral, and desecrating a place of rest to steal the remains of a priest that nobody had ever had something bad to say about.  After a moment of silent consideration, Liseth finally nodded her head to the Sheriff.

"We can still tell Father Zantus what happened though, right?  I don't think that I would be able to keep this away from him."  Liseth looked at Sheriff Hemlock, then Kerr, then towards the vault with the broken skeletons laying in front of it, "He's bound to find the skeletons anyway, and if anybody should know what happened to Father Tobayn, it's Father Zantus."

"I wake up just before the sun comes up every day."  She answered to Pisca, "That way I can watch the sunrise while I pray and meditate.  After praying I usually have breakfast."  Liseth thought for a moment, staring off into open space before returning her eyes to Pisca, "I would like to see what the goblins did on the other side of the wall too.  It could be our first official part of investigation.  If you want to meet me in front of the Cathedral about an hour after sunrise, I should be all ready to go."

OOC: Advancing sounds good to me.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:32, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Cato nodded to Sheriff Hemlock.  "I'll keep this between us, and I'll gladly take part in the investigation.  I don't think this is over.  Someone has something planned for this town, and it can't just be about stealing one body from a tomb and disrupting the Swallowtail Festival."

Cato laughed at Pisca's question.  "I actually do have a crossbow, I just didn't think I needed to bring it to the Festival, or to dinner tonight, either.  Rest assured, I'll be carrying it from now on."

OOC:
Ready to move on here as well.

FADE TO BLACK - Continued in Chapter #4:  A Massive Boar.