The next morning, we divided up the best stuff and most of the platinum. We wanted to go back to the tower to see if looking through the crystal from the top had any effect, and didn't want our haul stolen. Lyra cast 'fire trap' on our chests. The word to disarm them is amusing, but I can't share it. We plan on using it again.
On the way back, something like a scarecrow shambled toward us. It had a gourd head, a wooden body held together with rope, and ratty clothes overstuffed with straw. Its red glowing eyes bored into us. Mical met its gaze and abruptly stopped. I fired arrows at it, but it still reached Mical. It hit him a few times, ignoring Lagasse's attacks. When Lyra hit it with her flame blade, it noticed. It burst into flames and ran from us, screeching in pain. Finally it collapsed and was silent.
We made it to the tower and climbed all the stairs again. With the gem, I could tell that it looked a little clearer toward the mountains. Perhaps that pesky vault of knowledge was there. We decided to try again when the moon rose, and to kill undead in the meantime.
It was nice being the hunters instead of the hunted. We rustled up four things that looked like zombies, but fresher and faster. One of them even used a bow, and the others had swords. Mical couldn't impress them with his god's symbol, and the archer shot him. Lagasse, as usual, attacked with a vengeance, but Lyra's magical sword broke. One of the weird zombies hit her while she got another sword out. We straightened up our act then. All of us got in good hits, slaughtering the zombies. We got some much-needed arrows from the archer zombie, too.
Since that fight was more difficult than anticipated, we returned to the roof of the tower to wait. In the distance, we could see something in the grass to the north. It was dark and slightly reflective, but wasn't moving.
Once night fell, we looked through the crystal again. It wasn't any better, until the moon rose. Then it looked dark and fuzzy everywhere except for one small spot on the mountain. I attempted to sketch it so I could recall where it was later. We slept in the tower that night, as we could see shadowy forms prowling about below us.
