PCs: Hope

Run by: Shadowed Fortune

It's early evening, only a few hours after dinner, and the night is clear and relatively bright. For once, it seems like things are just going to move with relative peace and tranquility. Indeed, after the fire and the confrontation with the tiger god, the Calendar spirits have backed off again, leaving Hope to focus on her real work, in dealing with the unquiet dead.

Hunting the undead is always so much better when you actually have some food in your stomach. Karrus is off making plans, doing his usual thing, and Hope has left the confines of her warded cabin and her surrounding lands that she claimed as hers.

As such, she's dressed in her full slayer regalia, the gold plated orichalchum breastplate hidden underneath her hunter green cloak. Slung over her shoulders is a full quiver with different sorts of arrows, and of course, there's her bow in hand already. She's making sure she's ready once more.

As she stalks through the lands, she moves with a gluid grace, almost seeming to blend into the shadows. Her form flickers in and out of the light and then the shadow as she hrmms ofr a few moments, trying to keep fully aware of her surroundings, listening for anything that might bearound..

In the near distance, you can hear the sound of hard, heavy horses, being ridden hard. Breaking over a hill, you see a small girl run, crying and stumbling almost blindly through the dark.

Her eyes widen as she gasps and chews on her bottom lip. She wrinkles her nose as she peers curiously towards the sound of the heavy horses. The young girl definitely catches her attention, but considering what happened before, she continues to remain hidden, watching for now.

Over the hill ride three men on... horses? In the shadows of the night, they look like horses, pale and fine. When they pass through a patch of moonlight, however, the steeds appear skeletal, but still decked out in rich finery. The men themselves are dressed in steel and boiled leather, obviously about to do some hard work. Running before them, unnaturally silent, is a pack of omen hounds, their broad paws leaving no trace of their passage.

The girl stumbles, then climbs a tree, looking down in terror at the pack of hounds, and the men circling.

Skeletal horses? This isnt good at all. She wrinkles her nose and chews on her bottom lip. She's going for a surprise attack, and so she continues to blend into the shadows, still keeping her distance. Pulling out three arrows, she charges them with golden light before she takes a deep breath and lets the arrows fling towards the three. Of course, where did it come from?

Two of the men fall from their horses, the arrows piercing them through the heart, dark blood staining the ground as they fall. Their horses bolt. The middle figure however, is saved, although clearly staggered on his horse. "Damnation..." he mutters, then shouts at the hounds, "Kill that bitch!" The Hounds sniff the air, and then begin pelting, hard and fast for Hope.

The treed girl watches from high up, eyes wide.

The last man's eyes widen at the display of golden Essence, and he turns his horse and rides hard, back towards the Tower of Gloom. Meanwhile, three of the Hounds fall. If the rest care, they don't show it.

A flurry of Essence powered arrows rapidly cut down the hounds as- the last hound of the pack just having time to leaps for Hope, jaws opening wide- only to be slammed to the ground by one last arrow, fired straight into it's open mouth, landing with a heavy thud.

And the arrow strikes it. She starts heading towards the downed dogs, just pulling out the arrows with one big yank. She goes around, pulling them all out and takes a deep breath, sighing softly and starts to head towards the little girl...

The girl hops down from the tree. She's fair complecated, her large brown eyes wet with tears as she runs towards Hope. "Oh, thank you," she says, breathlessly. "I thought those men... and that tiger..." she says, then gives a choked sob.

Hope blinks blankly. She's not exactly the maternal type, considering her own mother trained her hard to make sure she could defeat a hungry ghost by the age of ten. She just pats the girl on the head, looking a bit uncomfortable as she purses her lips. "It's all right. Let's get you home.." she says, still glowing a bright gold before suddenly raising her brows. "Tiger? What tiger?"

The girl draws a shuddering breath. "A tiger came to my v- village, with those men. The- they were killing everyone!" she wails. "Momma told me to run, and those men on the horses came after me..." She breaks down and starts crying in earnest.

"What does the tiger look like?" Hope asks, her brows raised as there's a bit of anger in her features. She chews on her bottom lip and motions out towards the land. "Where is the village? Perhaps they can still be stopped.."

"That way," the girl says, pointing over the hill. "It's close."

And Hope follows.

Cresting the hill, you get an excellent vantage view of the girl's village. It's dark- not unexpected, really, since it's night -but there's not even any fires burning. No smoke curls from any chimneys. A thin, white line of salt can be seen, glistening in the moonlight, but it's broken in several places.

Hope looks around, taking in the entire sight. She's still flaring as she hrmms for a few moments and looks over at the little girl. "Stay here. I'm going to look around. Hide in those bushes over there.." and with that, she starts to stalk off.

The village is quiet. You could almost assume that everyone was just asleep, that nothing were wrong... except for the doors, systematically broken down. Or the smell of blood, of death. The wind whistles, quietly, mournfully, through the broken place. Your glow casts the simple houses into stark relief. No one comes to investigate you.

Her eyes glow a little as she wrinkles her nose as she chews on her bottom lip and runs her fingers through her hair. She's now looking for any dematerialized spirits, wary the entire time.

Nothing jumps into visiblity. However, as Hope moves through the village, there's a quiet groaning. A hungry growling. A frustrated scraping, a shoving aside of hard packed earth, from near the center of the village.

Noticing the hungry growling, Hope grabs a few more arrows and starts heading towards the center of the village. She can be seen from almost a mile away now, surprise is not on her side.

There's... a pit, in the center of the village. It was hard to see, at a distance, because it was full of bodies, and in the night, it looked like just another patch of muddy ground. Up close, there's no mistaking it. A mass grave, of the dishonored dead. A pulling themselves out of it, come the ghosts of the dishonored. Hungry. Animal. Mad.

Reaching into her satchel, Hope simply snickers, letting out a soft chuckle under her breath. a wry grin curls onto her lips as she pulls out a vial of black starry liquid. She throws it towards the area with most concentration, and soon enough, the stars sprinkle everything within ten yards. Any ghosts who resist will remain, but the rest will either continue a path to Lethe or Oblivion.

Hope steps back, taking a few more vials. She has a total of four, so hopefully it'll take out a decent chunk of the undead. She mutters a prayer as her castemark glows brightly, full of the sun's power. "May your souls find peace.."

Out of the corner of your eye, you see the dematerialized form of a massive tiger slinking out of one of the houses. As you turn, arrow at the ready, it vanishes- presumably, to whereever it normally hides when not harassing you.

The girl you left hiding in the bushes is trembling slightly when you get back. "Miss?" she asks. "Did you find my mommy?"

Hope looks over towards the girl and frowns a little. "No..I..I'm sorry, I couldnt find your mommy.." she says a little, actually feeling for the young girl, not wanting her to see what had just happened. She sighs and wrinkles her nose, leaning in to give the girl a hug. "I..I'm so sorry.."

(OOC aside: The /plan/ was that the Zenith was supposed to be all Zenithy and burn the bodies of the villagers, making her easy prey for Deceptive Monsterous Spirit, the tiger god, to pounce.  Hope, being an exorcist, somewhat borked this plan up :))