[b]Forgotten Ruins, Royal District:[/b]

Hawklen's group moved as fast as their wounded would allow. Krenna was complaining and swearing something fierce, while Norbe kept rubbing his elbow and muttering under his breath. Glum walked slightly behind the other three, likely as a means to ward off any ill-begotten attempts at a sneak-attack by their adversaries from earlier. Meanwhile, Hawklen was busy running his mouth, singing his own praises and retelling the tale of their battle, even though it had just ended... And everyone had been there... Not that he seemed to care.

As the group wandered off, they took a path through the eastern plaza's more narrow and likely less busy alleyways and backstreets, avoiding the larger main road. Whatever it was that had put them in a rush to retreat, it was clear that their little run-in with the rag-tag cadre of loosely allied adventurers here at the center of the ruins had made them vary of any additional battles. Most likely not helped by the fact that Krenna had dropped her weapon and Norbert had had his both stolen and broken. Soon, the group of four had vanished into the ruined buildings, leaving the other five combatants to lick their wounds and settle any personal affairs and issues they might have...

... Such as interrogating a certain young boy about why he had been following a tribunal of nobles. Or why there was a woman parading around in her underwear who could summon nightmare-fuel by engaging in self-mutilation. Or maybe heal their bruised and battered bodies. Or perhaps decide on who should try and climb up the tower and reach the promised bounty that lay just a hair's width out of reach?

The possibilities were endless!

[i]Meanwhile...[/i]

[b]Forgotten Ruins, The Church:[/b]

The gaunt, middle-aged man roared in pain and agony, as he fell backwards in an unpleasant bend, slamming onto the ground with a thud, arms limply smacking onto the dusty floor alongside his crumpled form. Other than the inquiry from the Paladin, aimed at a small hill of corpses, there was no further noise or words... Just silence. Even the strange female elf who had come running into the chapel sat quiet and stared - first at the collapsed figure of the deranged priest, then at the brutish lizardman and finally at the strangely concerned paladin.

That is, until a sound, like a whispering wind was heard, and she suddenly let out a surprised gasp and her eyes shot wide open. Her posture went rigid and her arms fell down along her sides, straight and tense, like steel bars. With labored, unbalanced poise, she rose from her kneeling state and stood, staring with her horrified expression and large, staring eyes at the two men before her.

"[i]Mhm... Mhmhm...[/i] Mhmhmhmhm...! [b]HYAHYAHAYHAAYHYAHAYA![/b]" An at first unpleasant snickering suddenly turned into a morbid, psychotic laughter. And it came from the collapsed priest.

Suddenly, his legs were bent up towards his chest, then thrown back, and the man was once again on his feet, like he was some kind of reanimated acrobat or something. His expression was no less bizarre than before, both eyes twitching and darting around the area wildly, a lunatic's grin on his lips and his arms, thrown up towards the ceiling, fidgeted and squrreled with his fingers, before they fell limp along his sides and he cocked his head sideways, staring at the lizard.

"... No salvation for you. Only death." He said the last part entirely deadpan and without enthusiasm, by the way.

In the next instant, the man threw his dirty, ragged robes off - as if with practiced and rehearsed skill - revealing an even more bizarre sight. The man was clad in bones. Yes, [i]bones[/i]. Several human, or humanoid, bones had been somehow fused together and combined to form some kind of strange, macabre suit of armor for the man. There was even a rib cage covering his torso, which seemed to not even have been nicked or scratched by the lizardman's attack! Meaning, the old coot had just been faking it when he was initially struck down.

That didn't really matter though, as soon a pair of long, blade-shaped bones materialized in his hands, like wicked, curved scimitars. The man's head snapped back to a regular position, though not before licking the length of one of his weapons, then pointing it at the girl who was behaving strangely.

"Child! Go! Go! Go! Kill! Do your duty! Serve! Heathens begoooooooooooooooooooooone~!" He cried out, in the familiar hoarse and nasaly voice from when Vani and Kaze had first met the man.

Trembling, as if in convulsions, the girl reached for her bow, plucked an arrow from her quiver and turned to face Kaze. Nocking the projectile, she soon let loose the first of what would be many arrows, all aimed at the lizardman, ceaselessly hounding him with shot upon shot, and whenever he drew near, she would use her elven agility and speed to - in a strange wobbly and shaking fashion - retreat and put distance between the two.

At the same time, from the mound of carcasses, a bunch of moaning and groaning couldb heard. Soon, the top-most bodies slid and slumped to the side, as three figures rose within the very center of the heap... But, they didn't seem well.. For one, they all had blood coming out of their nostrils, ears and bottom of their eyes, secondly they seemed to very much lacking in both pulse and the whole, life-department. Only regurgitating foul, pained sounds, the three very cliché zombies began to trundle and trudge their way through the obstacle-course of corpses, all three intent on greeting their [i]savior[/i], Vani...

The strange, bulgie-eyed creep was just standing with his weapons, laughing maniacally as events unfolded. The church filled with his deranged cackling.