As the party approached the clearing from the south, they noticed the remnants of some sort of ritual involving a fire. It was very clearly the same spot they had seen in the scrying. While the hooded figures were gone, the party noticed three other man-sized creatures approaching the site from the east. They moved very slowly and delibirately towards the remains of the ritual in the middle of the clearing. The party edged closer, wanting to figure out who or what these creatures were before deciding on a course of action. Shanris, Percival, and Clarence all turned to Hayate to warn him not to do or say anything until they had made a decision. It was at that point that they all realized that Hayate wasn’t there. Clueless as to where he could have gone, they decided to stay and observe these newcomers.
The party approached with care, making sure to stay hidden as best they could behind trees, rocks, and whatever else happened to be in the way. The creatures were definitely humans, two male and one female. One male was substantially larger than the others, and all were carrying a longsword. It was hard to tell from that distance, but it appeared that they were also wearing cloaks and armor that bore the school insignia on it. While that should have been a relief to the party, something just didn’t feel right. They weren’t moving or behaving like normal people do. After they had reached the center of the clearing, they stood there and looked around for several minutes while the party observed. The party decided to spread out, so that if they were hostile they would have them surrounded. Shanris went to the east while Clarence headed west. Percival stayed in the middle of them to the south. Shanris and Clarence reached their locations, seemingly still unnoticed. At this point Percival called out to the strange visitors, asking if they were from the school and declaring that the party meant them no harm.
They apparently did not feel the same way, as they all drew weapons and began to charge Percival’s position. Shanris and Clarence both let an arrow fly at them, and each of them landed their arrow deep into the head of their target. Much to their surprise and horror, this did not stop them; but it most certainly drew their attention. The smaller male charged after Clarence, while the female charged towards Shanris. The large male continued to charge Percival, who fired an arrow at it. Percival’s shot landed, but with little effect. The brute was quickly upon Percival and knocked him down, jumping on top of him to keep him there.
While this was going on, Clarence had dropped his bow and began to charge himself with electrical energy. Shanris fired another shot at his target, hitting it directly but doing seemingly no damage to it. Noticing that Percival was in trouble, Shanris knew he had to help. He dropped his bow to pull out his daggers and charged over towards Percival, muttering something about weak mages to himself as he ran. The female he had been shooting attempted to cut him off, but Shanris was able to very gracefully roll out of the way and continue running. Upon reaching Percival and his newfound friend, Shanris threw himself feet-first into whoever was on top of Percival. This sent the man flying several feet over the top of a very small hill, down which he rolled further. Shanris stood up immediately and charged him once again. Shanris jumped at the prone man, attempting to land on top of him and decapitate him by ripping both of his daggers through opposite sides of his neck. It wasn’t quite as smooth as he had hoped it would be, but after a few hacks and chops Shanris was able to decapitate the man. That, thankfully, put an end to him.
As soon as Shanris finished off the large male, there was an explosion off in the direction of Clarence. The male that had charged him had also attempted a grapple, and was the first of several to learn that using such a strategy against Clarence is an exceedingly bad idea. Clarence was able to shoot a bolt off at him before he reached him to some effect, and fully discharged on him once the thing had a hold of him. This resulted in the charred remains of what the party would later determine to be a zombie flying a good 10 feet back, where it landed in a twisted and smoldering heap.
Today was just a generally bad day for Percival. After he had just stood up, the zombie chasing after Shanris plowed into him and he was again pinned. He attempted to get into the thing’s mind and make it stop, only to discover that as far as his power is concerned, it had no mind. Thankfully Shanris had just finished off Percival’s first assailant and made short work of his second in much the same fashion.
“I’ve discovered their weakness,” Shanris began. “Without their heads, they’re powerless” he finished dryly, severing the last bit of muscle connecting the zombie’s head to its body.
The party gathered themselves together, making sure they were all ok. Percival and Clarence had both taken a shot or two, but their injuries were considered minor at worst. At this point the party inspected their attackers. They were definitely dressed in school garb, but their clothes were ripped and worn, as if they had been traveling in rough conditions for quite some time. The most curious feature about them, however, was their eyes. Their natural eyes had been seemingly removed and replaced with stones. These stones were smooth and reflective, and dark as obsidian. Much to the disgust of the other party members, Clarence removed the stones from all of their eye sockets and placed them into one of his containers, not even bothering to wipe them off first.
Further examination of the corpses revealed that they all showed signs of having been “dead” for quite some time. This lead the party to believe that they were zombies. None of the party members fully understood what that meant though, as they had only heard myths and legends about such beings. They all stood there for a moment letting that fact sink in, much as they had done when they met their dragon companion. This was the second of many occasions where the party would find themselves amazed at being face-to-face with something they weren’t sure existed.
The party had a mission here though, and quickly got back to it. They went over and inspected the remains of the fire in the middle of the clearing. The fire was made using seven pieces of wood that were arranged in a fashion that appeared to be physically impossible. Parts of them were in the air supported by each other, but the party couldn’t figure out how they weren’t falling over. Clarence reached out and touched one, which apparently broke the magic on all of them because it caused them all to collapse and lie normally.
The other point of interest was the seven-pointed star drawn in the dirt around the fire. Thinking back to what they saw in the scrying, the party determined that the points were where the hooded figures were standing. There was no sign of the man who had been in the middle of the fire, and the party could not determine if that was good or bad. Regardless, the party had evidently taken too much time in getting there and missed the show and so they decided it was time to figure out what happened to Hayate.
The party made a beeline back to the last place where they knew that they had seen him, which was the great white tree. Once there, Shanris found a set of tracks he determined belonged to Hayate. They followed them for a good half hour before Shanris, at the lead of the party, put his forehead down and slapped himself in embarassment. He had been following the party’s own previous tracks. Again they backtracked and attempted to find where Hayate had deviated, but they were unable to find such a spot. With no hope of finding Hayate, the party decided to head north to the river, where they had agreed to meet Triana once they were done.
As the party was traveling to the clearing for the first time, Hayate saw a beautiful butterfly and had followed it for a ways. Not watching where he was going, he fell in hole and found himself in a gigantic cave. He yelled and yelled, but he had gone too far off the path for the party to be able to hear him. With no means of getting back up through the hole from whence he came, he decided that he must find another way out. This cave had a river flowing through it. Hoping that it led to the coast, he followed it. It took him several hours, but he eventually emerged from the cave along the coast. It was nightfall by now and he was soaking wet. Given that it was the beginning of winter, he should have been very uncomfortable to say the least. This was not the case though. He could tell that he was wet and knew in his head that he should feel cold, but instead he felt normal. He determined that his must be a pleasant side effect of his power.
After some searching Hayate found his way up the cliffs that bordered the coast and follow the river back west, knowing that it lead to the spot where they had agreed to meet Triana. After several more hours of travel, he reached the campsite the rest of the party had set up, who had all made it there several hours before without incident. Triana was there as well, and the party had been discussing the day’s events and discoveries with her.
Triana was able to tell them that the zombies they found were the product of some necromantic ritual. She also asked Clarence to remove those stones from her forest as soon as he was able. She also suspected that this was the work of some coven of witches, as the number seven is very important to many of their rituals. Much to Percival’s delight, she also informed the party that the following day she was to meet with a great bear who lived in these woods. This bear supposedly knew of some strange happenings by a cave in these woods and was willing to discuss them with Triana. That would all have to wait until morning though, as it was very late and the party would need their rest if they were to stand a chance against what they would face tomorrow.
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