"Undead?! Well, I don't much like the sounds of that."

     Astrid steps to the edge of the pit next to the bogatyr. "Agreed. We can't just leave whatever's down there for some poor soul to fall upon." She looks up to Alaris and gives them a nod. 

Shiva relaxes slightly as the group seems to settle on a plan of action. There is the matter of how the four of them will quickly and simultaneously tail the Norscans, but she figures that Ari can summon their steed to their current location whenever they wish. As she lands on the thought of summoning steeds, it occurs to her to attempt a call for Énbarr. 

Reaching up towards her chest, lightly touching the faded mark, she calls out with her spirit for the nightmare. "Énbarr, we ride to battle. I will need you to carry me high above our enemy. You may eat of the dead and dying as you wish." 

     The dwarven cleric begins to slowly pace the long edge of the pit, pulling something out of a pouch as she does so. She stops and looks to the heavens.

     "Great Scribe -  Thank you for knowledge to rid this area of those whose time has been at an end." With three shakes of her hand, Astrid scatters something along the bottom of the pit. "Bless these salts to cleanse these grounds and drive out the restless dead!"

As Astrid strides around the edge of the pit, Alaris follows behind her. The bogatyr uses Hope's Edge to inscribe a circle in the dirt around the pit and prays for the Lady to bring new life to this place after the Scribe has purged it of the defilement of unlife.

Alaris's inscription and the salt that Astrid has scattered within the pit swell with a golden light that slowly spreads inwards until no part of the long trench is left untouched. A baleful moaning fills the air and hands push up through the loose earth from below. Eight female figures draped in loose dresses clamber up out of the ground. Each has chains hanging by a manacle from either their ankles, neck or wrists. The undead women flee before the holy light that purges their presence from the pit, running for the edges and trying to clamber up the sides.

Meanwhile, Shiva hears a distant neigh and the rhythmic sound of hoof beats approaching.

     "Oh, dear!" Astrid is shocked by what her spell unearths - the apparent slaves left by the Norscans. "These men are evil to leave their victims behind like this!"

     "They suffered in life; they don't need to suffer in death too," she says with sympathy as she begins to channel another spell. "Brightmantle - allow these poor souls to rest!" The dwarf holds her hands to the sky and quickly brings them back down, calling forth a column of radiant light upon the undead women. 

Brightmantle's purifying, radiant light is anathema to the walking dead. Their rotting flesh hisses and dissolves wherever the golden column falls upon the creatures. In short order, Astrid's spell has reduced three of their number to ash.

Glad to hear the approach of the nightmare, Shiva steps towards the pit and observes the undead women shambling and clawing their way out of the dirt. Her throat constricts painfully as she watches their miserable and decaying forms and feels the tears begin to well up. 

"Even in death, they are violated. Their bodies desecrated and made to serve those Norscans."  She waits to hear the reply of her Other, but there is only silence.

After seeing Astrid destroy three of them with her divine influence, she blinks back the tears, and she reaches out towards one of the rotting women. She feels the energy build beneath the skin, and focus it out in a bright blast of lightning that strikes the now-vacant victim. The body spasms violently and begins to burn, the smell of burnt flesh joining the aroma of burnt ozone. But the body does not fall, it merely stands. Shaking and temporarily immobile, Shiva finds that she cannot continue to look.

Turning her eyes to Caio, there is a grim calmness to her. "Caio. Do you know if demons eat the souls of their victims?" Her attention drifts off, and pain fills her voice. "I would like to consume their souls."

“Some certainly do.” he responds. The inquisitor watches as his friends begin to dispatch the wretched waifs below them, and with a sigh of resignation he pulls out his bow to join them. “Let’s get this over with before your dinner gets cold then.” He notches four arrows at once, their shafts inscribed with prayers to his Matron, and with one swift motion he lets them fly.

The dark shafts of Caio's arrows streak through the air, seeking their targets with unerring accuracy. Runed arrowheads pierce the limbs of most of the remaining undead, pinning them to the ground and holding them fast.

     Astrid moves the column of radiant energy atop the last of the undead women, bringing their time to an end. However, as the last turns to dust the edge of the pit beneath the dwarf's feet gives way, sending her into the pit. Before she can get to her feet another hand bursts forth from the ground below and takes a firm hold of one of her ankles. 

    "Oh, no! There's still more down here!" Astrid kicks her leg in an attempt to shake from the hand's grasp but it holds tight. "Some help, please?!"

In a silver-limned crimson flash, Alaris plants the butt of Hope's Edge into the ground and pushes off, pole vaulting up and into the pit! They slam into the ground, absorbing the impact and turning it into a diveroll that brings them to their feet near Astrid, momentum carrying them forward. With a powerful twist of their shoulders and torso, they slash the blade of the mighty glaive into the shoulder and neck of the last of the shambling undead on its feet. With a searing splatter of black ichor, the blade carves through its body and down into the ground, where it stabs into the wrist grasping at the dwarf's ankle.

"You rang?" Alaris grins at the priestess, eyes glimmering with battle joy.

Quote from Sphynxyy >>

“Some certainly do.” he responds. The inquisitor watches as his friends begin to dispatch the wretched waifs below them, and with a sigh of resignation he pulls out his bow to join them. “Let’s get this over with before your dinner gets cold then.” He notches four arrows at once, their shafts inscribed with prayers to his Matron, and with one swift motion he lets them fly.

Shiva nods with an uncanny peace to her, and turns to look at the last remaining undead: the one she herself struck. It had regained mobility and had made its way closer, but remained out of arms reach.

There is a heave within her as her grim focus is turned to the sad creature. Without consciously invoking her strange magic, without even moving a muscle, the air around her heats dramatically, and a huge bolt of lightning shoots outward directly from her sternum. It impacts the corpse with such heat and force that it is simultaneously charred and obliterated. Rotted viscera and body parts explode in all directions, spotting Shiva's trousers. "Know rest. And know that your reparation will be paid in blood."

She turns expectantly to the source of the hoof-falls, waiting for her mount to arrive. "We ride. To kill and consume."

Darkness shimmer and Énbarr materialises before Shiva, standing proudly as she waits for the tiefling to climb atop her. The nightmare seems somehow larger than before. More potent.

Alaris reaches up with their free arm and lets Shiva pull them up out of the pit. "That was gross. Impressive, but gross." Their ichor-splattered visage still shines with life and energy, as they throw their head back and whistle a piercing sequence of notes. The sound sends an unnerving thrum of divine power down the spine of Enbarr, Shiva, and any other fiend-touched creatures in the vicinity.

Within the stable at the Abbey, Zadkiel hears the unique notes of her true name. Straw rustles, hanging tack jingles, and stall doors rattle as the Lady's magic swirls through the stable. In a moment, the dappled grey-white warhorse is simply gone.

She canters up to where Alaris' whistle is still fading from the air, and nuzzles the bogatyr roughly. I was sleeping...

Shiva smiles at Ari's comment, but it lacks warmth and does not reach her ears, altogether far from her normal countenance. 

Énbarr's increased strength and vigor are a fortifying sight, and Shiva climbs upon her mount with a calm determination. Her hands pass harmlessly through the fire of the nightmare's mane, and she notices that they burn more brightly. She reaches out once more to communicate wordlessly to her mount. "You've been well, I see."

Then the notes of her dear, divine friend ring out, and Shiva is uncomfortably reminded that their natures exist in polarized and violent opposition to one another. A dread creeps up from her stomach and latches onto her heart before dissipating as the call ends. Énbarr rears back onto her hind legs, voicing her displeasure at the holy influence so close by. "It's alright. Alaris and their mount will never harm us. They hunt with us. Their power keeps those of the gods from ever falling upon us."

When Énbarr calms, Shiva speaks to the group. "Caio, you'll ride in the sky above with me, while Ari and Astrid ride along the bank. Once we spot them, Caio and I will drop down from above. Ari, could you fly yourself and Astrid to the boat once you're in range?"

Alaris scratches their chin, brow furrowed for a moment. "Yes, I think so. We'll need to close fast to steal any advantage from their archers or spellcasters. I doubt they'll enjoy Énbarr's flames on their deck, either. Let's ride.

Énbarr and Zadkiel head downriver, soon passing beyond the city limits and heading towards the coast. Up ahead, heavy banks of fog hang over expansive plains of farmland that lie before the rolling hills that the river meanders between on the way to its delta.

"Just follow the river... No way we can lose them.... this is brilliant. I love my life," Alaris turns their head and grouses under their breath.

     "There's no telling how much of a head start they had on us." Astrid says trying to hold on as they race along the river's bank. "They're probably just covered by the fog. You two be careful in there," the dwarf calls to Shiva. "The flames from your horse may signal your arrival before you can see them."