The halls of the arch bishop's temple seemed uneasy that day, as Lysander and his compatriot, Pippen ventured to the temple's inner sanctum. The two adventurers had been through alot together, as they had met in the distant desert town of Urn. And many places had they went together since. Tension wasn't hard to take note of, and this place was no different. It was just days earlier that the two had met with a strange man in one of the local taverns, a man who immediatly took interest in the demeanor of the warrior Lysander and the rogue Pippen.
"Wanna make some coin?" the man barked at Lysander, as he sat drunk with ale and stories being passed around the bar.
"Depends on what you require of me," Lysander said, followed by an ale burp.
"200 gold for you and your friend sound good?" the man replied.
"200 gold! For what?" Pippen said, butting into the conversation as the word gold crossed someone's lips.
"All ya gotta do is go meet the arch bishop at the temple for instructions, he's my boss and asked me to find some able bodies to undertake his little task. Up to it?" the man replied, as if wishing to end the interaction here and get out of the tavern quickly. The two hadn't noticed yet, but the man had priests robes on under a plain bluish robe.
The last thing the two remember from that night was the robed figure scurrying out of the tavern like a roach running from a misplaced fireball spell. Lysander had a bad feeling, like the time Pippen tried seducing a lake nymph and ended up losing all their gold. But this was much more serious.
The inner sanctum was vast and empty, save a man dressed in flowing red robes and wearing sparkling gold holy symbols and baubles. The man smiled a wide inviting smile as the two approached him.
"Welcome my fine travelers! You have the look of experienced adventurers." the man said in a sweet and condescending manner.
"Psst...Ever had yer arse kissed by a priest?" Pippen whispered to Lysander as they approached the bishop.
"Shhhh!" Lysander scolded.
As they approached the man, he began to appraise them, as if placing a value to them. Pippen squirmed, as this man made him very nervous.
"So I hear you need assistance," Lysander said.
Upon the utterance of the final word of the statement, another priest strode out from behind a pillar with urgency.
"You will address the Bishop as "your grace"!" the priest said.
"Sheesh, who's this guy?" Pippen said jokingly.
"Please excuse Vincent," the Bishop said, "he is very formal and imposes formality on all those around him foolish enough to go outside of the lines, so to speak."
The neonate priest seemed ready for travel, as he was wearing leather clothes and a metallic cone helm. The priest also had a bag packed on his back with a mace and shield at his side.
"Your grace, If I will. About the assignment we've been told about?" Lysander spoke as courteously as possible, so as to not incite the anger of the neonate again.
"Ah yes, the assignment. It's really quite simple. Recently there has been undead activity in the ruins of the old town of Bersault. Legions of the dead have taken up arms against the nearest town, Valeia. The local church has acted in accordance with my orders and sent many warrior priests to quell the undead uprising, but to no avail. So many of our brothers have been overwhelmed in battle. Now I am forced to send what little I can, and that is good Vincent here. He is a very skilled neonate priest and is desperatly needed in that area," said the Bishop, "Your job is to make sure Vincent arrives unscathed, and the local church might offer what little it can upon your arrival."
With gold in hand and a new traveling companion, Lysander and Pippen knew they had their work cut out for them. The lands west of the temple weren't the safest roads traveled and the thought of the final destination being infested with the undead didn't go over well with Pippen, who hates any type of bones other than chicken or rib bones.
And so the next morning our heroes set out, swords at their sides and horses all packed.
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to be continued
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