In the end, there was little more to be found at the shrines. There were, after further investigating, signs of footprints in the soft soil... one set of which ended at the skeleton. But right now there was no real indication of what had happened here. Fanilly couldn't help but be disturbed. A necromantic spell performed so close to a shrine to Mayon? And to what end? Regardless, she eventually made the decision to take the skeleton with them, back to Aimlenn. It looked as though all the flesh had been pulled off of it... but that couldn't be the case, could it?

Could it?

No matter how much searching was done, there was no way to discern where the shard had been taken. It was dark by the time Fanilly finally relented, realizing there was no way that they could discover where it had been taken like this. She desperately wanted to keep trying, but there was no way to pick up a trail in the dark. In fact, there was no trail to pick up at all. Even though a few prints remained at the shrine, there was little to no sign of anything else.

The skeleton was loaded onto a cart to be returned to Aimlenn. The trek back was largely uneventful. Nothing in particular, beyond complaints from Veileena Cal about how the situation had turned out.

Fanilly felt like she had failed. They hadn't recovered the shard, they hadn't even found any signs of where it had gone. Their only lead was a skeleton, and the fact that some remnants of Phoran Cal's rebellion were involved. That was all that they had.

When they reached Aimlenn, the skeleton was prepared for investigation and further research into the Nercomancy. Veileena Cal was escorted to her mansion, much to her consternation. The church immediately dispatched two priests and several paladins to construct a divine barrier around the shrines to prevent further heretical intrusions into their grounds. Doubtlessly the news they returned with would cause quite a stir.

The doors of Candaeln opened, and Fanilly lead the rest of the Roses into the entrance hall.

She couldn't shake the feeling that they had failed.