Deciding it was perhaps a good idea to take a look around the place Fiona stepped into the ruins of the village around the city. Since she was now armed with the knowledge of potential zombies around she drew her sword and held it in one hand. She lit up a candle and held it in the other, giving her better visibility. She could handle some minor undead now that she knew what to be on the lookout for. 

The buildings of the village were ruined and ravaged by age and time. Termites were probably the only things that called them home now. She glanced around inside some of the buildings and saw nothing but the rotting and ruined remains of furniture. So far there really didn’t seem to be anything of value around. Which made sense in a way, if there had been surely looters would have claimed it many years ago. 

As she made her way past a barn she was aware of a shuffling nearby and lashed out with her blade, the weapon flashing through the air. Right on time as a zombie had been about to jump her. It wore the rusted and decayed armor of some long forgotten nation. Her blade sliced clean through its neck and sent its head rolling out onto the ground. Another quick slice sent it tumbling over. It moved for a moment before going still. 

There wasn’t anything of value on the creature, but gods it did smell to high heaven. She wrinkled her nose and stood up from her inspection, looking around. No other shapes nearby. Fiona moved on toward the direction it appeared to have come from. As she walked she soon came across something a bit odd compared to everything else around here. 

There was a gravestone, a rather well maintained gravestone at that. It was blank and had no name or markings upon it. There was something hanging from around it though. A rather beautiful crucifix. Rubies glinted in the candle light and the flawless silver didn’t appear to have aged or corroded at all. Fiona knelt down near it and set her sword down, inspecting the crucifix. It was absolutely beautiful and the grave was such an odd sight. Completely undisturbed. No undead seemed to have risen from the dirt. 

What did Fiona do? 

A-2a: Fiona took the Crucifix.

A-2b: Fiona left the Crucifix.

A-2a

Fiona was never one to just leave treasure behind. She also wasn’t a particularly superstitious woman. The Venerated would want to protect the living rather than the dead right? She found the chain of the Crucifix rather hard to remove but after fighting with it for a bit she managed to pull it from the gravestone. She held it in her hand, inspecting it at length. It would probably be worth a pretty penny itself honestly. 

There was an… odd feeling of unease however as she took the thing. A chill ran down her spine and it wasn’t from the cold. The woman stashed the crucifix away after a few moments and shook it off. She figured that was probably the most she was going to find out of the village without attracting a lot of zombies. While she had some holy protection now, no reason to tempt fate or anything. So she headed back to the city. Yet as she did, she couldn’t shake that feeling like something was wrong. (Go to A-3, option will manifest later) 

A-2b

Fiona was absolutely not messing with this grave in any way. Are you joking? That’s how you got cursed or something and the blonde was not keen on adding any kind of additional problems that might come to haunt her later. She let go of the crucifix and stood up, brushing herself off. Still, it was a strange thing. The only thing about the village that was maintained was the grave. Who was doing it? Ana seemed the obvious answer, she was the Sister overseeing this place after all. 

Yet hadn’t Ana said she didn’t come out this way anymore? It was a mystery and a question for another time perhaps. For now, the city awaited and Fiona had no intention of delaying any longer. (Go to A-3, option will manifest later)