[hr][hr][h3]Barille Inn[/h3][hr][hr]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/935994562026016780/1193952290516770928/vampirekillerpriesthead.png?ex=65ae95b8&is=659c20b8&hm=ac920701b2f3082381f4133a7fb89c4d6b159286a53c8a02f78d36965fd159ca&[/img]
Chance was for the inn, but Valentina wanted to investigate the chapel. This caused Alistair to raise an eyebrow--he hadn't been sure Barille would still [i]have[/i] any holy ground. Small rural settlements sometimes didn't have an actual church building, and when he'd searched the old maps and travel routes to find a way out here he had seen that the former parishes of Gransylva had been abandoned.

Mayhaps other brothers survived out here, somehow, someway, but even so...Alistair felt he was probably the first holy man to step foot over the Vampire King's borders in a long, long time.

The large dragonborn indicated that he wanted to investigate along with Valentina--was he anticipating conflict? Moreover, relishing in the idea of it? 

"Miss Valentina, you and our large friend seem quite capable." He said with a nod. "I'm sure you'll be safe--" Then he turned to Bert and Chance, "But I don't believe the two of you have any form of holy protections, or experience with...the supernatural, correct?" Valentina clearly had an artifact or two on her person and had stated she was a hunter by profession. Kharne, of course, was the size of an outhouse of the brick variety. "I believe it's best if I stick with you for the moment."

The group thus split up, and Alistair walked a pace or two behind Bert and Chance as they looked through the derelict village to find an inn. Following a faded sign and rutted tracks from one of the broken carts, they soon found themselves standing in what could've passed for a swamp had the two story building not dared to defy the dead, grasping canopy of the trees around it.

Bert retrieved something from a pouch and put it in his mouth while he taunted Chance's caution. Alistair's mouth quirked in a frown--was the man chewing tobacco? Perhaps there were worse vices, and if anything the stimulant might sharpen his senses rather than dull them, but the priest still found it uncouth.

As the flighty man bantered with the mercenary, the Inquisitor took a good look at their surroundings. This stream had likely flooded in the storms brought on by the Vampire King's shroud of everlasting clouds; and without villagers and travelers, the inn had no doubt fallen into disrepair. Yet, aside from the signs of clear abandonment...

There were no bloodstains here, as there had been in the village. Aside from some birds in the distance, barely visible over the roof in the cloudy sky, no animals frequented the woods around them. There was a well---if it still had a working bucket and hadn't filled in with silt or debris, they might be able to get a water sample to purify.

Chance poked at the stream with a stick. The murky surface bubbled as he dug into the mud, and Alistair's eyes scanned lower to the ground--

[b]A cross, near the roots of a tree.[/b]

The dark water churned.

"There is a grave there!" shouted Alistair suddenly, sweeping his mantle out as [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chironomia]his hands rose in a series of sudden gestures[/url]! [i]Oro, allevero, protego![/i]

In the blink of an eye, a cube made of ethereal blue light expanded in front of Alistair's palm. As it grew in the space of another blink, it swallowed the Inquisitor, Chance, and Bert before freezing in place with a sound like crunching ice. The shallow water around their feet had been pushed back to the structure's edge, and the dead, blackened grass had been flattened under them. If not for the translucent glow, one might have thought they'd been encased in a glass prism somehow.

"This is a [color=gold][b]Holy Barrier[/b][/color]." Alistair said, his voice tight. "If we are attacked, do not leave its light." Had he overreacted? For all he knew, the thing in the water was a jumping polliwog or a garter snake. 

But people typically weren't buried right outside the front door of an inn. And in Gransylva, people had a habit of not [i]staying[/i] buried at all.