There is a cleansing

You accept the Paladin's guidance, and her directions. This of a more urgent concern, for you and protecting the good of all.

"You're right, Dilah, of course." You respond with a short head nod. "We have to make sure this stops here, whatever this is, to keep people safe. So, what's our first move?"

"We survey the town, look for any signs of a cause. Anything that seems out of place."

"Other than the piles of undead, obviously." Xandria replied with typical dry humor "Glad I'm here. Keep a good eye out, this probably isn't going to be something immediately obvious. We'll spread out to cover greater distance." Each of you move in a different direction, hoping to see any evidence or sign of the evil that caused this. Cautiously, you enter one of the decrepit buildings, looking through the items of whoever lived here. Even before this evil sprang up, these people lived a hard life, that much is evident. Heading into what appears to be a bedroom, you don't find any immediate cause for alarm, but there is some distress. There's a small crib in the room, occupied only with a stuffed toy, in the shape of a bear. Your heart pains in thinking what may have happened to this family, and your mind shifts to the orphanage, back at the cathedral. For all the frustration and headaches those children caused, they were largely yours to contend with, and seeing the causes all of their faces to flash in your mind, and miss them. Taking the toy out, you give a hard squeeze, and try to keep your mind on the present moment. You kneel down, holding the toy in your hands as you close your eyes, praying for Phoenica's guidance, to find any source of the evil here. You feel your mind clear, but there is no sign of evil anywhere in the village.

Your prayer is disrupt with an indistinct shout, from Xandria. Toy in your hands, you rise quickly to your feet, following the source of the voice. Dilah is there with him first, the half-elf kind enough to wait for you to arrive as well before beginning. With his curved blade, he points to the area before him; the town's small graveyard, such as it is. "What do you notice here?" He asks, his eyes still staring at the ground.

You look and see nothing immediately out of place, given what you fought earlier "The graves are disrupted, the dead rose from them. I don't see what you're getting at."

Xandria responds more clearly "There's too few graves." his blade pointing at each disturbed grave "There's more bodies than there are holes to put them in."

"Not only that..." Dilah adds, standing over the graves themselves, looking deep inside "there is a difference between a number of these. More shallowly dug. No headstone, no coffin. They were buried in a hurry."

"So, what does that mean?" You ask, unsure as to how this adds up. Your two comrades look at each other and seem to be in agreement. Dilah is the one to answer.

"This isn't the affect of a dreadlord or some vampiric spirit. This is something more cruel, and unfortunate. A plague."

Your breath catches short "You mean, everyone here got sick? All at the same time?"

Dilah nods "That, or at least the ones that are still healthy were able to get away. Hopefully they didn't take this disease with them."

You add what value you can. "Well, I took a moment to pray, asking for Phoenica's guidance, and I don't sense any evil here, so what happened? How does a plague lead to the dead rising?"

"The dead weren't buried. Some buried improperly, many weren't buried at all. Dead that aren't put in the ground are said to walk again, although this doesn't explain how those already buried came to rise. There's still something we aren't seeing."

Xandria asks the question you were about to "So, now that we have that figured out at least, what do we do now?"

Dilah looks down and breaths with a heavy heart. "The entire town has to be cleansed of any remaining evil impurities remain."

"How do we do that?" He asks

"With fire." She responds quickly. "We burn everything to the ground."

"Isn't that...****?" You respond somewhat surprised by the methods "I mean, we destroy the city, we destroy their memory. With the last of their belongings gone in flames, and with all the graves disturbed, it will be as if the people here never existed at all."

"If this plague was created, that might have been what they were looking to do" Xandria responded, not indifferent to your concern

"There's nothing we can do about that." Dilah responded "There are no survivors, near as we can tell. The damage has already been done. If we leave anything standing, we leave the chance that this blight can still spread. We have to destroy it all."

"But-" You start to protest further, but Dilah will not have any of it, as she wrests the toy from your hand. "Damnit Demetria! This is not the time for childish sentimentality. I will not have your life, or anyone else's, risked so that we can pretend we know anything about these people!" With the divine power of Mastro, the toy catches in flame in her hands, and she tosses it at the nearest building, slowly building in flames.

"Aye aye, Colonel" Xandria moves quickly to follow suit, taking a stray piece of wood to the flame to create a makeshift torch, spreading the fire from one building to another. You quietly follow suit, the only sound being the bonfires erupting around you. The last of the homes aflame, you regroup at the perimeter. For all of her hardness, Dilancia has tears in her eyes. She wraps either arm around each of you, holding you close for prayer, sung in an unfamiliar language, her voice quivering. The prayer over, she removed her arm from the half-elf to hug you tightly, and than turned to hug him as well.

"I'm sorry" she said, with a mixed emotion of confused laughter and solace "Demetria, you are absolutely correct. It's terribly sad that we have to do this. There's entire generations that lived here. Births, weddings, harvests, deaths. All those moments, all those memories, they vanish with each ember in the sky. I wish that there were another way, but we'll walk away holding our heads high. We've done a good thing tonight."

"You have done nothing!!" You hear infernal shriek above your heads. Looking up, illuminated by the flames in front, and by the fool moon behind her, was a shrouded figure flying on a wooden branch, her humanoid figure gravely distorted.

"A Witch!" Xandria bellows out as he reaches immediately for his bow and arrow, firing an arrow into the air, easily dodged by the prepared being.

"How very perceptive the three of you are, and how quaint to think you can undo my work here. The village is already dead, fools! Everything you do here is merely academic! Be on your way now, or you will find the same curse that afflicted these poor souls will be on you as well, and soon, the maggots will eat your dead carcass as well!" The threat being made, the witch took off in a tearing blur through the night, deeper into the woods.

Left only with the roar of the fire, the three of you look at each other with clear vision and intent. You are the first to speak

"This all ends here!"
You rush in the cardinal direction you see the witch fly in. You can feel heat in your face, but not from the fire, or from exhaustion. The fire of an inner rage begins to roar inside, the smoke of it clouding your mind.

"Demetria, stop!" Dilancia called from just behind you, and your racing pace comes to a halt. Her hands raised preventatively, sensing your eminent protest and explanation.

"A moment if you would, to consider what you're about to do."

"We need to stop her, before she hurts anyone else! She's evil!"

"Yes I know, but I need you to take a moment to reflect on values. Specifically, your god believes that everyone can be redeemed, and that all life is precious. Are you ready to fulfill that ideology to the fullest? To spare the life of this wretch?" You recognize the dilemma, and you can't immediately answer her. In absence of a response, she takes it out of your hands, for the moment "I can't let you do something that you're about to regret, and I can't let you get in my way..." As she draws her sword "If we keep going, you understand what must be done, yes?" You nod quietly in agreement, drawing your own weapon. Xandria simply nods in agreement, his bow replaced with two thin long blades. You at the lead, you charge headlong in the same direction.

After a few minutes, you begin to wonder if you're even heading the right direction. The witch could have gone anywhere and you would be none the wiser. Your doubts are quickly put to the side, as more of her handiwork is immediately in view. Spiders the size of your torso have drawn impossibly large and thick webs, and behind them, are more shambling undead. These more aware of their environments than the ones before, and having more life still clinging to their bodies, they shuffle towards the three of you as you contend with the spiders. You are very much the novice of the group when it comes to combat, but you are at least able to hold your own and fend off being surrounded by the threats, running on sheer instinct at this point. The last of the spiders defeated, you crush the bones of the last zombie in the group before you are aware of a cave tunnel, with an infernal purple glow on the inside.

Afraid of both what is inside and what may yet come, you push the fear to the side as you storm inside, alongside your partners. There are strange constructs along the way, combinations of wood and animal bones, clearly a part of the witch's power and foul religion in some way. You smash one of them with your hammer, met in response by a group of shrieking laughs.

"The only thing worse than a witch. A Coven" Xandria responded dryly as he drew his handy bow in place of his two swords. You continue your way down the tunnel of the cave, the flickering of the purple glow indicating some foul magical fire inside. The witches, for all of the foul power they draw from, are over confident, and even in their own lair, are insufficient. Their spells wash over the three of you like a wave over a boulder, protected by the holy magic of the Goddess of Life and the God of Justice. The last one to be brought down was the leader of the group; the one that spotted your work earlier. On her knees, she knows her fate is sealed, but looks at you in bitter hatred. As you clench your hammer tightly, you feel a hand on your shoulder.

"Well Demetria?" Dilah asked, with her sword pointed at the injured witch, clinging to her mortal wounds "Phoenica calls for this being to be forgiven so that we can show her the good of the world, and let the goodness in her grow towards a path of redemption. I don't think you really believe that, not anymore. Mastro calls for justice to be dealt out in a swift and decisive manner against those who have wronged others. You've gone this far, do you take the final step in acknowledging where your heart truly belongs, or shall I deal the final blow myself?"