World Tree MUSH

    The township of Cullfield has a largely human population numbering somewhere under 1500 people. Sure there are other races present, but here they're in the minority of this largely human town in the middle of nowhere on another fantasy-styled world.
    Anyway, the fact of the matter is, the local graveyard has been getting raided by night. Graverobbers dig up the dead, and make off with corpses fresh and old, and there's no explanation as to why. What's worse? At this point the cemetary is nearing empty by the time the town headman put his request out to the nearest Adventurer's Guild in order to spread the word of their plight.
    Said headman, a middle-aged man with grey streaks in his dark hair is standing at the cemetary gates, as a grey 2003 Ford Windstar slowly putters up the road.

    Yet another goddamn job. Dante, now free from the thralls of being drunk, is here. "Yo, old guy!" He calls out as he approaches the client. "Lemme guess, shit's bad and you need us to go clean things up?" He asks. "Don't worry, we'll be done in like an hour tops." Dante grins, before he jogs off toward the graveyard with his sword in hand. That van just tells him everything, that shit is gonna get crazy really fast.

    Like many times before, the Assassins have heard of this towns plight, and the expert in off-world interactions has arrived, slipping into the small community and simply observing from the rooftops. She's there now, as the headman moves to meet the others. She's stood atop a nearby building like some kind of stabby gargoyle, Aquila perched on Piera's shoulder like a smaller, stabby gargoyle.

    Stealing dead bodies out of graves for an unknown purpose? That sounds fairly ominous, given how some are able to reanimate dead corpses and bend them to their own will, usually for nefarious purposes. So Tyrael is already at the graveyard in question, searching the empty tombs and the ground around them to see if there is any evidence that may point to the robbers' intentions, or where they may have gone. Did they take the coffins, memoirs, or stones, or did they only take the bodies?

    Serrah is not part of any adventurer's guild. That would give her obligations. This world is giving her slight pangs of homesickness, which would generally have resulted in hurrying out, but when she heard about the job, she ... got swept up in answering it. With great reluctance. And a surprisingly low level of sleepiness.

    She shoots Dante a wry smile. "Overconfident much?" she fires back. "Uh, but, I mean." She shrugs, and turns back to the headman, shifting her grip on her sports bag. "What can you tell us about what's going on?"

Misaki actually knows why she's here this time. She's already transformed, and upon noticing the familiar car she's decided to avoid immediate notice and perch upon a nearby building, whereupon she notices another familiar face. "Hi." She greets the assassin.

    Dante's swaggering confidence is met with an almost owlish blink from the headman. "Well." He says. "If you can have this done in an hour, all the better..." Mumbled as he rubs the back of his neck. "We've had a massive string of grave robbings. They take... Everything, anything of value, but what's worse is they're making off with the bodies. These are the remains of family, friends, and loved ones. We don't care much about the things they're buried with, but we'd like for the body snatching to stop." He says to the demon hunter and to Serrah.
    That should answer Tyrael's search as the archangel makes his way through the crypts. They have been picked clean, not a single sign of niether treasures buried with the dead nor the dead themselves.
    It's right about now that the minivan rolls to a stop, and Morrigan steps out, Mary Contrary on her shoulder. She... Ignores the headman and walks right into the graveyard. Mary flits off her shoulder and up into a tree.
    "Okay everyone! Here's the plan!" She announces. "I'll be the bait!"
    And with that she promptly hops into a six foot deep hole. ... A moment ago it didn't even have a coffin in it. But with a snap of her fingers there's suddenly a coffin and some flowers and wreathes from out of nowhere to look like a freshly dug grave that just had a recent funeral.

    "Necromancers, got it!" Dante says. It's unclear if he's even listening to half of what the headman's said, then again it's unclear if he's listening half of the time anyways. "Yoooo, Morrigan, Mary! What's up?" He greets gleefully. Unlike...everyone else but Tyrael, he's pretty eager to see her, probably.

    And then Morrigan leaps into a hole. "Good plan!" He says, peering into the hole as a coffin just...appears. "Hmm."

    Then he goes to find a tree to hide behind, or something. He'll pass the time with Tetris on his phone...soon as he can find the icon on the menu. It's a mess of apps on his cellphone.

    Tyrael examines the now-empty holes, finding that the robbers have indeed left nothing behind. So perhaps it's the material wealth they are after? But why take the bodies? Hm.

    Then Morrigan arrives and jumps into a hole, somehow conjuring up a coffin or at least the illusion of one. It's a reasonable plan. Not that there's much he can do to stop her from executing on it. The angel rises into the air, hovering enough of a distance off and behind some tries so that the potential repeat thieves (hopefully) wouldn't see him. Well hopefully they won't look up.

    Serrah nods, frowning. "Hmm. Yeah ..." She shakes her head. "I know a little bit about dark magic, and I can think of eight zillion reasons for doing that kinda thing, of which exactly zero are good ..."

    Her voice trails off as Morrigan arrives.

    She pauses, just sort of staring as she inhumes herself. She glances between Morrigan and Dante.

    Then she shrugs. "I mean ... that works," she says. "That's, uh, that's nothing if not a practical solution!" Without another word, she slinks away a few inches above the ground, transforming into a Serrah-shaped black silhouette in the process. Not the same thing as going intangible, but hey, this late in the evening, she hardly needs to search for a spot where she can hunker down and be out of sight.

    Piera nods to Misaki in return, the assassin pair watching the others. "Seems all we must do it hide, and wait." she mentions, resuming her perch and dropping down to a crouch which lowers her profile.

"Yup." Misaki makes sure to hide and wait as best she can... without abandoning the little orb of light she holds in her hands to give her comfort. It's getting late and dark out here, after all.

    Well, with the sudden plan hashed out the town headman leaves the group to it. As Serrah, Dante, and Tyrael take positions, and with Piera and Misaki already in a prime position to wait it out.
    Unfortunately by Dante's estimate's it's longer than an hour. It's not until deep into the night that there's motion at the gates.
    A group of five men stalk their way to the cemetary gates, each wielding a crowbar, shovel, pickaxe, spade, and digging bar.
    "Alright we've almost picked this place clean, but there's gotta be something good here still 'fore we go." The one at the front of the group hisses to the others, who nod in agreement.
    "One more night, a few more bodies, and we'll be done 'ere. Remember, grab anythin' looks valuable you can, while we got the time." He says. Before one of their number points at the grave Morrigan dug for herself.
    "... Nah. Too fresh. Prolly a trap."
    Mary can be seen pulling at her hair from up in her tree as the men bypass the grave entirely.
    And no, they do not look up.

    Piera watches the men, shaking her head briefly as they completely bypass Morrigan's little trap. "More intelligent than the Templars." she murmurs to herself, hopping to another roof with the wilence of a cat, watching the men venturing further into the graveyard. She makes a whistle like a night bird, Aquila launching off her shoulder and taking a hovering position above the men, keeping them scouted as they move.

    "I wonder if we can follow them back to where they're hiding."

    No one ever looks up. That's the advantage of being able to fly, even if you're literally glowing with light in the middle of the night. Maybe they figured it was just a particularly bright moon tonight.

    So as soon as the robbers have shown themselves, Tyrael swoops down out of the sky and lands in front of them. "Mortals. Cease your pillaging of memorials, or face judgment for your unjust deeds." he demands, drawing El'druin and pointing it accusingly at them, although not yet attacking them.

    Serrah is patient, but not hugely patient. After a while, she starts sneaking around to different vantage points. But once the newcomers arrive, she hurriedly slips over to another hiding spot by a gravestone.

    ... And ignore Morrigan.

    Slowly, and as silently as she can, Serrah facepalms.

    While they got the 'time', huh? If anyone could see Serrah in her shadowy form in the night ... they'd see her suddenly floating after them from a bit closer, about five feet off the ground. One proverbial frame of animation, she was behind the gravestone, and the next she was floating after them --

    She comes to a stop and backs away as Tyrael makes himself known, slinking off to the side. She thought she sensed a massive bundle of Light around here ...

Misaki was trying to be stealthy, really. When Tyrael does his thing though, she sees no reason to bother any longer and she coats herself in a golden light, gives herself a pair of golden wings and a golden bow. All of this is purely cosmetic and does nothing beyond make it bloody obvious where she is and give a certain impression. "Thy days art numbered, mercy shall only be granted to the penitent." She states loudly.

    "Fuck." Dante mutters under his breath. These guys are pretty canny for a bunch of criminals. He was going to try and wait it out for once, but unfortunately it seems Tyrael had lost patience before even Dante could. That's a first.

    "Well, at least it wasn't me for once." He says with a shrug, before he waits for the criminals to attack, drawing Ebony in hand.

    The graverobbers make their way into the cemetary only to be confronted by the Archangel of Justice himself, resplendant and gloriously bright, sword in hand.
    There is a moment of shocked awe as the men- petty criminals and thugs by the looks of them are halted in their tracks. Doubly so when Misaki, Angel of Light and Brilliance reveals herself as well.
    Morrigan's head pops up from her hole.
    "The hell...!? Was it really that obvious?" She huffs as...
    The men drop their tools and immediately start cowering.
    "D-don't smite me!"
    "I didn't wanna do it!"
    "He gave us no choice!"
    "He said we could have whatever we wanted as long as we brought him bodies!"
    "Look just spare us and we'll leave and never come back!"
    This sounds like there's something deeper going on than just five thugs looting graves.
    "L-look." The leader speaks up. "Me an' the boys were a team of miners not too far from town. We dug up somethin' we shouldn't have and now it's been makin' us do this. We ain't got no choice."

    Piera remains on a roof, out of sight, and silent. Aquila remains hovering above the group, silent and invisible save for the tiny pinpricks of light from her jetpack engines.

    "Oh." Dante is almost disappointed. "So what exactly DID You dig up?" He asks, lowering Ebony as he approaches. From their POV he must've popped out of absolute nowhere. Mysterious.

    Tyrael regards them, listening to their pleas. It is hard to tell whether he is of the mind to heed them or not, given his lack of a face. But give or take several seconds after he has heard them out, he withdraws the weapon. "Then you will lead us to this being you speak of, and I shall render judgment. Then, you will return what you have unlawfully taken from these people, so long as it is possible."

    Serrah gives Misaki a look. It's entirely invisible in the darkness, but it's a look nonetheless.

    Hmmm. She timestop-teleports over to Dante, frowning at the group of men. "I mean, this does sound like the original thing we were gonna try to deal with," she says.

    She furrows her brow at Tyrael, and shakes her head. "Pushy much?" she mutters under her breath.

Misaki keeps her distance for now, listening and letting the others handle the talking. She trusts them... well, most of them. The mirage is maintained as a dispassionate observer, which doesn't move even the slightest bit.

    Morrigan grumbles as she clambers from her grave.
    "That was... Kind of easy?" She grumbles as the thugs give up. But there's a look that the men share as soon as Tyrael says to lead the way back.
    "N-nuh uh." The leader says, and it sounds like he had to work up a lot of courage to defy the Archangel of Justice himself. "No way. Not going back to see that thing." He shudders. "Look, I'll mark the mine on your map, but..."
    But just as he says this something smashes down the gates to the cemetary. There's a flash of green light and the sound of a thunderclap as Morrigan shoots it on pure reflex.
    The ten foot tall mass of necrotic flesh and jumbled limbs comes shambling at the group, wielding rusted tools and ancient, chipped, weapons.
    "Oh god it sent its pet after us!" One of the miners says as they make a break to hide amid the graves.
    "Uhhhhhh. Guys." Morrigan says, pointng. "Undead Golem!"

    Piera is off as soon as the gate comes down. A whistle, sharp and shrill, unlike any bird rings out. Aquila lights up light a christmas tree as her engines flare and she summons her laser blasters. These open fire, raining laser bolts down on the Golem, while Piera brings her left arm up, bracing her elbow with her other hand. Her palm is facing toward the Golem, fingers splayed like she's aiming something.

    BLAM.

     Her Hidden Gun goes off, sending a conical bullet at the necrotic monstrosity. The recoil staggers her back a half step, wincing and shaking her arm out.

    Dante was just about to call it an easy night's pay too. "Goddammit, it's never that easy is it?" He sighs, before he takes off after the golem. It's a big ugly beast too, patchwork with pieces of human corpses. And probably other species too, now that she thinks of it.

    Drawing his other pistol, Dante opens fire on the golem, riddling it in demonically enhanced .45 Auto.

    Serrah frowns. "It's okay, dude," she says. "We'll handle it for you --" Crash. "-- uh, we'll handle it for you!"

    She squares off against the monster. "Yes, Morrigan, thank you for pointing out the obvious!" she says. She smirks at Dante. "Heh, yeah, it never is, is it?" She reaches into her sports bag. "Uhh ... wow, I'm prolly gonna have to buy new baseballs after this, aren't I ... Anyway, kapow!" She starts lobbing baseballs at super-speed. It's a high rate, but she still hasn't quite reached major-league-pitcher speeds ...

The undead golem arrives and Misaki immediately stops with the mirage. She maintains her position as she manifests both her guns and a glowing orb of light above her head, and she goes straight for a quick series of blasts aimed at the creature.

    "No. I do not trust you, mortal." Tyrael tells the leader. "If you refuse to cooperate, then you leave me no choice but to deliver punishment for your misdeeds. However, should you do as I have requested, I will protect you against whatever evil threatens you and your companions at the mine." Because obviously, his word is more trustworthy than theirs. I mean come on he's glowing!

    But before the man can answer, a shambling undead mass of necrotic flesh rushes the group. "Begone foul creature." he demands, and throws his signature weapon straight at it, hoping to run it straight through.

    The group has the advantage of initiative here, even though the golem busted through the gates, there's enough distance that everyone gets their attacks off on it before it cn reach the party, shinki and hidden gun blowing off several limbs, baseballs slamming with bone breaking force, infernal .45 rounds leaving gaping wound holes, the only reason the golem isn't dead is...
    Well, because it's undead.
    Misaki's light-based fire sears flesh and burns the golem nastily, and it smells something awful as it shambles closer- and Tyrael's blade slams it dead in the center of mass causing it to stagger before it swings at everyone and everything wildly with its rusted implements of death.
    Morrigan takes a leaping tumbleroll that ends in a baseball slide that gets her out of harm's way as she unleashes another few rays of her eldritch blast at the thing, and from the looks of it, the monster is quickly falling apart if the group can keep up their damage output.

    The blade doesn't quite go all the way through. Maybe Tyrael needs to work on his throwing arm. Anyway, he teleports to the blade's location, which means he ends up right front of the monster. Then he proceeds to grab the hilt and rip it out, twisting and pulling upward as he does so for maximum damage.

    Piera charges across the rooftop, drawing her sword and leaping to slice down the back of the monster as it recovers from one of those braod swings, she goes for the back of the legs and down its back on the way down, before leaping away from a reprisal.

    Aquila continues to shower the golem with laser fire, the barrels of her blasters beginning to glow from the sustained barrage.

Misaki starts using her guns to fire continuous beams, focusing on wherever the golem looks like it's got pieces about ready to fall off to try to cut off what keeps them stuck to the golem.

    Serrah grimaces. "Yeah I'm not sure I have any other tricks anymore ... uhh ..."

    She glides sideways, trying to find a spot that other people aren't attacking. "Well, whatever," she mutters, and raises her hands, stops time, lobs a bunch of baseballs, and throws them all at once.

    Dante unloads on the golem more, aiming to take it out at the legs like a ballistic buzzsaw. "Almost done, timber, ya'll!" He calls out with a hoot.

    Even though it takes wild swipes with its rusted weapons, the party is quickly whittling the flesh golem to nothing; between Piera and Tyrael's blades, Aquila and Misaki's concentrated fire, MOAR BASEBALLS and bullets, and even Mary Contrary hacking away at the golem with her little sword, it comes apart in a pile of broken limbs and oozing formaldehyde.
    "Well that was disgusting." Morrigan says in a casual tone, while the thugs emerge from their hiding places.
    The boss has a map in hand, with a mark on it for a series of mines nearby.
    "Look... I'll give you this... It's the mine where we found... It." He says, forking the map over.
    "It called itself... Aghazdralanikar..."
    Morrigan holds up a finger and opens her mouth as though to add something to the conversation.
    She notably does not blast the guy.
    "That sounds like a dragon's name."
    "It's worse than a dragon, lady... ... Stripped of life, of hunger, of the needs of the flesh, an undead dragon is just evil incarnate."
    "Oh. Morrigan says. "Well shit."
    Then, it's right about now that she wheels around to face Misaki.
    "HEY MISAKI. That's one!" She says holding up a finger and flashing a sharp-toothed grin.

    Piera continues to walk after finishing her flourish. She wipes off the blade of her sword, sheathes it and makes a quick whistle, bringing Aquila down to land on her shoulder. "Tell us when to meet you, and you shall have our blades." she says over her shoulder, not looking back as the others all converge to converse. Assassins gonna assassin, the target is dead, now she will vanish into the crowd.

    Tyrael watches as the golem finally falls, the twice dead parts falling to the ground. It's a pretty gruesome sight, but he has certainly seen worse. El'druin is sheathed once again, and he turns to Morrigan. "You. I wish to speak with you in private." he tells her.

    He looks at the map, then back at the miners. 

    He still doesn't trust them. 

    Once the map is taken, they'd suddenly find themselves in a bubble of golden light. "Summon the magistrate. These men will answer for their crimes against the citizens of Cullfield."

    Serrah ... facepalms at Morrigan's comment to Misaki. And then she adds her other hand to the facepalm in response to Piera.

    And then she lowers her hands to glare at Tyrael. "They were kinda being forced into it, dude," she says, though not too loudly. The guy's still a big ball of Light, which makes her skin crawl in ways that even Jun doesn't.

    "Sure, whatever gets this done already." Dante says, and he grimaces at Tyrael as the Angel continues his distrust. "You're a real judgemental son of a bitch, aren't ya?" He scoffs, stowing his pistols. "They literally said as much. They got conned into this shit. Whatever, let's just get this done."

Misaki just lets everyone word's roll over her, but she smiles at Morrigan. "I dunno, I think you tortured yourself there, jumping into a ditch just to get called out by those dimwits." She sounds deadpan, "But I think I'll let it slide."

    Tyrael turns to Serrah and Dante as they criticize his actions. It's not something he's unfamiliar with. "Injustice shall not go unpunished, regardless of the cause." he replies, his tone resolute. Well at least he's confident.