Act I-I: The Village of Mayfield

The head of the caravan looks at Talyn as if he had just insulted his grandmother, but just nods at the suggestion. Peculiar shakes his head, looking over the rotting carnage strewn about the road. He calls some people that are able to assist him in burning the corpses as the party takes their leave to hurry over to the Timberashe farmstead.

Prusx, in giant eagle form, surveys the surrounding area from up high. She spots that not a single sheep had gone astray, nor preyed upon by any form of predator. Looking closer down at the barn, however, she notices that some other farmstock had been cursed with fell unlife and were amid the mob that clattered and banged on the red painted planks. From the distance she's at, it may be that a bull had been dragged along, a few pigs, and what seems to be a gaggle of chickens.

It takes a good few minutes to dash over to the barn, but rest was sometime away with such a group surrounding the barn. Approaching, none of the animals have taken any notice of them. That said, some damage has been done to the wood. Unlike the stony foundation of the tavern, the wooden planks that make up the barnhouse are splintering and coated in dark blood.
Two voices are shouting from within, especially that of a boy. The other voice is years older and may well be the father. All of a sudden, a window above bursts open! An adult of some many years holds the boy's head out sternly, reprimanding him it seems. Seeing the group below, he calls out.
"Oy! You lot! Mind helping me fix my idiot son's mess? These damned animals are bloodthirsty brutes and are wrecking the farm I helped me father built!"

The battle this time was a little tougher, as a hardy bull that was afflicted managed to gore Talyn, but not in any life threatening way. The undead were culled swiftly just as last time.
When the dust settled, the barn doors creaked open, with the stern face of Farmer Timberashe looking over the carnage with sullen eyes. He says nothing over his fallen livestock - his way of life and money making.
With a sigh, he bids everyone to enter and rest. His son is whimpering inside, muttering apologies through the sobbing.

The lad, who looks to be roughly 16 or 17 years old, looks up at the dusk elf, and then at the rest of the party, seemingly confused by the company. He shakes his head, trying to regain what little composure he had left.
"I-I found a loose page on the ground yesterday," he says, shaking with guilt. "I saw it drop from a book that some fella in robes was carrying. I meant to return it to him, but he looked so mean... I... When I held the page and looked at it, I was so curious. I snuck out to the barn to look at it last night. I couldn't understand a word of it. It was written like some sort of magic words. I figured it had to be a spell! Pa always says magic is a foul thing to taint the world, aside from them miracles that powerful clerics and priests know.
I meant to put it down, but I was just drawn to it, like something was alive inside it. Could have sworn I heard voices too, cause I started trying to read it aloud! I was so afeared... I tried to pull myself away after that, but I guess I said too much already, for the sheep and rams were already arisen as undead, causing all the chaos..."
He pulls it out from his jerkin and hands it to Talyn.

The lad nods quickly, just trying to cobble together every last thought he had from all the recent events.
"Well, uh, they wore a brown travelling robe. They looked pretty dirty, like he'd been travelling a good distance. He had some wrinkles to his face too, but he didn't look to far over his 40th summer. Even had a short beard that hung down from his hood. He always had it drawn over his face. I think people were calling him a courier? Heard he was looking for our local priest."

"No sir," the lad meekly says to Lyle, "It was just the one. My mum taught me that they can be used both ways, sir. She's a smart person."
His father adds, "Aye, she is, and yet you'd the wits to even pick up that accursed paper! Maybe I should've sent you along with her to the festival - that naught of this would have happened!"

Answering Prusx, the son says that it just filled his head with dark whispers that made him read the paper that fell.