When Kylie arrived back at the smithy, she looked at the others, and inhaled deeply. "We get Parkins. Have him get out of town, and take the boys we met in the town with us. Then... we play nice. Stay the night. Tell them we're going to wipe the dead once again in the morning, while our butler goes for help; offer to send any children with him, too, he can fit a dozen or two in the cart."

She looked over at the temple. "Once they start boarding up, we check out what the last party left. If its the mayor's house, we break in and retrieve the stolen goods. We rest until the time comes. And just before dawn.... Praxius breaks down their barricades, and the rest of us set the nearby buildings on fire, make sure they have nowhere to hide."

She looked at Derek and Terra. "You two of course can use your magic. I'll use bottles of oil or strong spirits and a torch. Someone might want to rebuild here, someday, so we don't need to burn everything down; but if we break down doors on some of the other buildings so they can't barricade them quickly, that should work just as well."

The devil gave a slow nod. "Well then. That sounds perfectly fine by me. You talk to the mayor about the children. I think he's already back cowering inside the temple. I was already going to collect all the chain in town and make sure any strong basements were inaccessible... I can break down some doors as well. You three can talk to the children, the butler. I'll go enjoy myself."

Kylie nodded... and stopped. "If anyone asks, you're sealing up the basements to prevent looting."

A slow shake of the head. "If anyone asks, I'll kill them and stuff them in the next basement I seal. There's no innocent to protect here, girl. This entire town is just waiting to sink into the pits."

She wanted to argue... but then again, there was nothing to say.

He was right.

***

The smell was awful, inside the temple. Not many were inside; most were enjoying the fresh air, a few were even hopeful that their problems would soon be over; but some were still cowering inside, refusing to come out in daylight even with the dead destroyed. The mayor, for his part, was in what was once the room where services were held at dusk; a stylized sunset emblazoned on the walls, and the seating replaced with dozens of bedrolls; and even some improvised bunk beds build from what were once pews against the wall.

The mayor looked up when she arrived, and frowned. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you leave, go get some real help?"

"Oh, we're fairly new adventurers, and could use the fighting experience against the dead. We're sending our butler to the Lord for help, and we're going to stay the night; we can take care of the dead problem in the morning. For safety sake, I'd like to request any children to go with him, get out to safety."

There were others in earshot; and a few perked up at this. The mayor gave a slow nod. "There are... eleven children here. It was thirteen yesterday, but two went missing with their father... I suspect trying to run for the next town. Poor souls. I suspect we'll see their faces among the dead the next time we remove the barricade. If their parents are willing, I'll send them along."

"As soon as possible. The sooner word gets to Rockdale the better, and it'd be best if the children are far enough away the dead focus on us, not on them."

He might be a filthy leech of a man, and condemned innocent to save... someone. Who knew the motivation for his crimes? But he saw reason in this; and soon enough, there were eleven children; all of them half-elves, amusingly enough, and all looking quite hungry... heading out to the cart. Some gave heartfelt goodbyes to their parents; while others simple plodded outside, uncaring about what happened; broken spirits, or possibly their parents already lost.

Parkins studied each child as they loaded them up; handing them a ration bar to help for the journey; they would be riding through what was left of the day, and into the night, to arrive at Rockdale.

Kylie smiled at her butler; and the mayor, who had stepped out to watch the children be loaded, frowned. "Do you... have any more food? We're starting to run low... virtually every stock in the village is empty, and we'll be on meager rations for tonight."

She glanced back at him. "Enough for the children, but... not enough for over a hundred villagers. Don't worry. This will all be over soon, and we can buy food at the next village over."

He seemed upset... but nodded in acceptance. "I... thank you. I'd figured all the messengers we sent out were killed by the dead, and we were doomed. It... finally feels like it could be all over."

The priestess looked at him; then at the broken corpses scattered around the temple. "It will be. This will be the last sunset you spend trapped here."

He looked around... and nodded. "You should get some rest. You beat them once, but there will be another hard battle tomorrow. Come midnight, we'll be barricading the temple again."

***

The sun had fallen, and the moon had long risen into the sky, by the time Praxius had finished with his errand; he'd started with over a mile's worth of chain looted from various sources, and only had a few hundred feet left before he'd start having to use what he brought into the town; granted, he had multiple miles worth of chain in a storage back at all times, but it was best not to waste. He left the borrowed chain around the temple, just laying on the ground, and headed for their meetup point; the mayor's house.

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He'd been by here, earlier in the day. Of the six hundred buildings he'd visited and chained shut basements, broken doors, this was one of the first; and when he arrived, the three youth were already there; looking well-rested and anxious. Clearly they'd managed to get a bit of sleep, but not too much, while he'd been making his rounds.

He stepped up to the front door, looking at the trio; the sound of hammering came from the direction of the temple. "Have you checked things out yet?"

His granddaughter shook her head. "No, sir. We figured we should wait for you. If some locals got upset, and it turned into a pitched battle, best we be together. And if we make too much noise... the hammering will cover it all."

"Fine. Lets head in. Any changes in the plan?"

"The kids are already on the way to Rockdale. They might even be there by now. We... could probably just burn the temple down, once everyone's barricaded inside."

Praxius studied his granddaughter for a moment, and nodded. "Good thinking, Terra. We wait for dawn, start the fire. Throw anything flammable onto the building. Either the problem is solved by the fire, or the dead take them out as they escape the flames. We should stay around, just in case, after."

He walked into the home; he'd broken the doorknob hours before; casually walking towards where he could sense the holy object; walking down a long hallway, with neatly painted walls, portraits down each side, several bedrooms, all with nice, expensive furniture, mostly carved with an ornate 'B' on handles and feet. The kitchen had clearly been ransacked days or weeks ago; nobody had been here in some time.

He reached the stairs down into the home's basement; and with a gesture, undid the chains he'd wrapped around them earlier. "The sword doesn't like me. I suspect it will like you more, seeing as how you three are neither devils, nor participants in the murder party they had here."

He watched as the trio started walking down the stairs. He took a step down; and could feel it. The sword was growing angry as he got closer; definitely something built for killing demons and devils. It might not be the best idea to give it to the girl... but still. She was a priestess. It was a holy weapon of some sort. It should prove useful. He stopped at the foot of the stairs, to watch the trio approach a set of locked chests; and as Kylie approached them, he could feel the sword calm down. Perfect.

***

Derek looked at the locks, and nodded. "Alright, I got this."

He immediately dropped to his knees by the first lock, taking his tools, delicately inserting them into the chamber, feeling for the tumblers as he'd practiced; when something thumped into his back, painfully. He looked down... to see that the devil had just thrown a key at him.

"...Fine, fine." He lifted the key, casually opening the lock in moments with a quick spin; and flipped it open.

The chest was completely filled by an immaculate suit of silver plate mail. Most of it was polished to the point of shining, but there was a patch where the polish itself had been cleaned off. There was a label beside it.

[Blessed Full Plate of Light. Sold by a retired Paladin of the Goddess, this suit of armor is durable, lightweight, and will slowly repair itself while exposed to magical light. Fit for a female roughly six foot one inch tall and one hundred ninety pounds.]

Oof. That was at least forty or fifty pounds more than Kylie. This might fit her, or it might not. "You want to try this on, sweetheart? Not sure how well it'll fit, the old owner was a bit bigger than you."

He slid over to the next chest as she inspected the armor; and popped the lock. This time there were stacks of items; both a few pouches, a much smaller, lighter set of armor, as well as weapons. He checked each out, one by one.

[Bloodsoaked Leather. This leather armor is unusually durable, and repairs both itself and its wearer while soaked in blood. The wearer has a tendency to go into a rage when struck, and individuals trained in focusing that rage may find it more effective.]

Ooof. Self-repairing armor.... but only leather. This would be great for a berserker, if they were one who didn't prefer the heavy stuff. Odd that both sets of armor were self-repairing ones.

He realized after a moment... if they weren't self-repairing, they were likely damaged too heavily to be useful by the process of killing the wearers. The mayor may well have the scraps and remnants of the other member's armors in a trash-heap....

[Elemental Daggers. Each of these daggers is a focus for a specific element, and empowers associated magic while the charge lasts. It must be immersed in the element to recharge. The sapphire-gemmed dagger empowers lightning, the red-gemmed dagger empowers fire, while the jet and amythyst daggers are unknown. They are sharp, but not special as melee weapons.]

He carefully removed them, laying them out on the leather bag they had been carried in. As he handled them, he could feel how much charge each had; none were fully charged, but they all had at least some. "Terra, you'll want the red one. It empowers fire magic. I'll probably keep the blue."

[Bow of Swiftness. This bow seems to fire arrows further and faster than a normal bow. This causes accuracy issues until one has extensively practiced with it; don't use this bow unless you plan on training with it first, and keeping it for some time.]

"Huh. Useless for us, but good for trade." He set the bow down beside the daggers.. and at the bottom were three swords. One of them was glowing with a soft white light, with leather wrapped around the handle, and had a pommel in the shape of a golden sun... the label wasn't attached to it, like the others, merely set atop it.

[Cursed weapon. This weapon of unknown provenance burns those who touch it. Best only sold to someone who may be able to make use of curse magic.]

He gave a low chuckle; and touched the sword. He felt a faint, comforting warmth. He pulled it out, and set it atop the same leather bag. "And the Paladin's sword. Seems like it burned anyone who touched it. I wonder why."

The remaining two swords were a dull black in color, and had a series of odd notches running down their length. He frowned, as he looked at the label.

[Poison Blades. These unusually sharp weapons contain a reservoir which can be filled with poisonous or toxic chemicals; or possibly even flammable ones; and designed to help distribute these substances into a victim when used for stabbing or slashing attacks.]

He blinked. Well. Clearly they had a ranger, or an assassin of some sort, in their group. "Yeah... honestly, most of this is useless for us, but will be great for trade."

He glanced over at Kylie; who had been carefully strapping the silver armor onto herself, piece by piece; it seemed oversized, uncomfortable.. and when she set the helmet on, she looked like a child wearing their parent's armor. "Ugh. I'd hoped this stuff would fit. I wanted some good armor." She shook her head, removing the helmet, and reached down to pick up the holy sword... which started glowing, much more brightly.

The armor seemed to glow in response... and seemed to visibly shrink. After less than a minute, it stopped... and was perfectly sized for the priestess. She stared at it for a moment. "By the goddess. I..." She looked at the weapon. "Of course, I apologize. I did not mean to interfere with the goddesses will, and will help you."

Derek frowned. "Sweetheart... who are you talking to?"

Kylie turned to focus on Derek. "What do you mean? Can't you hear that? Oh. They can't hear it. Well. The sword talks. To me, at least. It's upset that I fought the dead yesterday. It wants me to strike down the murderers in the temple of darkness... and to kill the devil that followed us down here."