Spectres and coffins

The stars and the moon shone brightly whilst we made our way to the graveyard. We were met with heavy iron gates, a warning on the wall beside them telling townsfolk not to enter during nightfall. I opened the rusty gates with a loud creek.

The graveyard was huge, it spanned a great distance, tombstones and mausoleums seemed to be haphazardly littered across the plot.

With what I knew of spectres, they only appeared when their resting place has been desecrated. They left their bodies as vengeful spirits to haunt the living until they could be given peace again. So, we were looking for dug up coffins and disturbed graves.

The plan would be to put the spectres to rest if possible, if that plan didn’t work, the next step would be to banish them from this world. This could be achieved by burning the remains first, then attacking the spirit connected to the corpse with fire. To put the spectre to rest would require burying the remains back to their grave and reciting a pray of the deceased’s religion.

Hopefully we could complete this task, instead of fighting spectres. We had three fire bombs, thanks to Blitz. But we would hesitate to use them in the event of accidentally burning the graveyard. Potentially disturbing more graves and in the process create more spectres. It was also more respectful and morally right to put the spectres to rest.

It wasn’t until we travelled more than halfway of the graveyard did we notice piled up earth and a broken coffin next to it. We approached it cautiously, keeping on guard in case we were ambushed by a spectre. We got close enough to the coffin to be able to inspect it. There were was no corpse inside, the coffin lid had been smashed open.

We heard a shriek behind us. We turned to its direction and saw a see through figure floating off the ground, its dirtied robe billowed even though there was no wind. It shimmied and swayed on the spot. Its hood revealed no face hidden underneath. Reaching out at us with a blackened and shrivelled hand. A spectre.

The contract mentioned up to three spectres being seen with in the graveyard. If we were lucky, this spectre hadn’t strayed far from its body. I scanned the area around it, sniffing to see if I could pick up the stench of decay. A weak stink of a decomposing corpse appeared to be coming from near the spectre. What a relief.

I grabbed the spectres attention whilst Elle searched for the corpse. She swaddled it up in a blanket and jumped in the dug up grave we found. The spectre floated towards me, shrieking as it did. I lit a torch and waved at it to keep it from getting too close to me. Elle did her best to bury the grave with what was at her disposal. We should have bring a shovel. She pushed the dirt on top of the body, patting it down. She rested on her knees and clasped her hands together as she muttered a prayer. The common religion of most humans was the god of shaping. The god known as the shaper was believed to have created the world and all in it. Elle knows of the prayers, having to have been brought up as a shapist.

When Elle finished the prayer, the spectre faded from my view into nothingness.

Dirt and earth caked Elle’s hands and clothes, she will need a bath after this, I smiled to myself with the thought of her naked.

With my heightened sense of smell, I picked up the scent of another corpse. We made our way to where I could track the scent, coming close we saw two bodies lying close to each other but one grave. Had they been buried together? And floating near the corpses were two spectres. This would be more difficult than distracting just the one.

With my torch in hand, I braved the spectres. I drove them away from their remains, waving the fire menacingly at them. They swiped at me with gnarled bony looking fingers. I dodged their attacks with ease. I wanted to make sure they kept trying to attack me so that Elle could bury the bodies without disruption. It was close. As Elle was finishing the prayer, one of the spectres made for her. I rapidly jumped in its path before it could get to her. Hitting it with the torch, it flew back as its robes became singed from the flames. Both spectres evaporated soon after. Elle finished the prayer.

Up towards a hill overlooking the graveyard, I picked up another stench of rot and decay. We had to investigate in case more spectres were present.

“Good thing that the people before believed in the shaper. And that you’re a follower too.” I said to Elle as we made our way to the hill.

“I’m not a follower of the shaper.” She confirmed. “I stopped believing in the shaper a while ago.”

“When was that?” I asked her.

“Around the time you told me of your gods,” she grinned. “I like the sound of yours better.”

Upon reaching the summit of the hill, we found multiple coffins dug up from their graves. A shovel was discarded near one. These coffins looked as though whatever had been inside, had smashed its way out from the coffins restraint.

We saw no spectres thankfully, but we found the bodies. Only this time, the corpses were standing and moving. Around ten could be seen, rotting flesh on old skeletons. They were clearly undead. The only conclusion I could come up with was that they had been reanimated.

Atop a sarcophagus stood a figure wearing a heavy cloak, whispering in words I couldn’t understand, an enchantment perhaps. The stranger had their arms raised as they continued what must have been a ritual that they were performing. I couldn’t make out their face, as it was covered by a mask that looked like a human skull.