Case 3.5: Bones and Domes
Sounds of moaning and crackling energy could be heard further into the basement of the pet store. The group followed the noise to find themselves in a large chamber, the northern wall covered in various sized coffins and one southern corner decorated like a small living space. In the centre of the room were 4 purple translucent domes, in the largest, stood a man in a dark brown cloak, paying little attention to the officers, he ordered his zombie minions to attack, one of which walked into his dome, disintegrating instantly. Once again, the zombies weren’t much trouble for the officers. The problem came with trying to disable the force field. Eddie had some luck firing his crossbow into the dome, but the man was ignoring the pain and continuing his incantation.
The officers tried to reason with him and begged him to let Brooke go. He ignored their pleas, saying that they could not protect him and that he needed to complete his spell. The officers continued trying to convince him they could help, which he again refused, saying that Brooke was a descendant of Tzeagrunoc, the Lich that rules the south of Jentari City, and that he needed her to cast this spell, freeing himself from his influence, otherwise he was dead anyway.
Fingle and Jericho started prying open the coffins, hoping to find the girl. Meanwhile, a small glowing orb caught Blaine’s attention. It was moving in a repeating pattern between the 3 smaller domes, then frantically fluttering in front of Blaine’s face before repeating the pattern.
Mistaking the orb for a minion of the necromancer, Blaine threw a spell at it, causing it to disappear. Blaine tried to taunt the necromancer with having killed its minion, but they either didn’t care or didn’t know what they were going on about.
Pushing the orb to the back of their mind, Blaine told the rest of the squad to attack the small domes in a certain order. This caused them to break, eventually bringing down the main magical field, opening the way to the necromancer.
Brogan quickly jumped in and laid them out with a quick pair of punches. As they slipped into unconsciousness, they cursed the squad for having doomed him. Blaine suddenly saw a thin silver thread manifest into the necromancer’s head, which pulled a light out of him and disappeared through the wall. Fingle checked the necromancer to find him dead.
With the necromancer out of action, everyone started pulling open coffins, trying to find the girl. Eddie, Brogan, and Fingle found plenty of animal carcasses. Jericho tore open the lid and found a frightened girl. He reassured her that everything was going to be OK. Then reminded her he was Emma’s father, and that Emma was also safe. Jericho lifted Brooke and tried to get her to focus her attention on him so Brooke might hopefully ignore the re-dead bodies strewn all over the floor. Brogan helped by placing her waistcoat over Brooke’s head. She then led Jericho back out of the basement and to her car.
The rest confirmed that the necromancer was dead and called it in to the station, hopeful that the Necromancy division could clean up any further undead that might be lurking. On the way out, they stopped in the room with all the animals and decided that the best option was to release them into the streets. All except the basilisk, which had bonded to Fingle and wouldn’t leave his side. Blaine also collected the undead parrot and brought it with him.
