If it weren''t for the pile of corpses outside, Derek would have no idea which house they were looking for; thankfully, they''d left plenty of evidence behind; and since the hatch was still closed, there was most likely still someone inside. When they arrived, Kylie approached first; and rapped on the hatch three times. "Hello there! This is Kylie, priestess of the light! Can we speak with you for a bit? We cleared all the zombies from the town, its safe to come out."


    There was a scraping sound. A loud ''thunk''. And after a minute or two... a man emerged, tall, heavyset, wearing simple brown leather and with a long beard just as red as Kylie''s hair... and a pair of children, too young to be sure if they were boys or girls, with similar poofy red hair. He looked at the corpses, and then up at Kylie. "Well. That''s good... for now. I know you''ve already done much, if you cleared them out. But would you be willing to take my boys with you when you head out? I''ve got a sister in Rockdale they can stay with, so it would just be for the day, maybe two?"


    Derek stepped in closer. "If the zombies are gone, why do you want the boys to leave?"


    He glanced over at Derek. "...Because they won''t be gone forever. They''ll come back. With every dawn. Until every one of us is dead. The boys probably won''t be safe... but its worth a try."


    Derek looked down at the boys, then up at the man. "And how are you so certain? There must be someone summoning them, or some device, we can stop. How did all this happen?"


    The bearded man slowly shook his head. "It is not for me to tell. But... we deserve it. Every last one of us. The boys though... they only did it because I did. Their mother refused. She cried when she left. She knew it wouldn''t be safe to take them, they''d take her and our daughters as well. Maybe, if they get far enough away, the curse won''t reach. Maybe."


    Derek shook his head. "No, no. Nothing a mere child could do would make them deserve such a fate. What''s their supposed crime?"


    "Murder. If you leave, you''ll be safe. They won''t follow you. They only go after the guilty unless you attack them."


    ***


    "Now you see. For today, I''m going to call this the Flail of Truth. Now... the flail''s purpose in life is to get to the truth. As such... it punishes liars. Do you understand me?"


    The man was wearing a simple white shirt, brown leather pants; and both were stained with read, from t he spikes in the chains holding his arms to the ceiling of his own basement. "But... but I''m just a blacksmith! Kelvin Smith! I told you, I know nothing about the zombies, I just wanted to know why you were using my forge!"


    Praxius gave a slow nod. "Ahh, that''s unfortunate! Our first lie of the conversation. I suppose you know what that means."


    The smith stared at the massive chunk of black, spiked metal in horror; as the devil lifted it... and slammed it into his right foot. He let out a screech of pain, struggling against the chains.


    "Now don''t worry! I''m sure you''ve got at least six, maybe even eight more lies before this becomes fatal to you. You might even walk again someday, now. But I do vastly prefer honesty."


    He groaned, and looked down at his foot. "But... I don''t know more than anybody else! The others all know it too! You can ask them!"


    Praxius leaned in close; focusing for just a moment on the man''s mind; and of course, it was boring; spiders. The face of a spider, covered with numerous eyes and hair-like protrusions, stared at him from inches away. "But the flail isn''t asking others, Smith. Its asking you. There''s blood on your hands. They drip with it. You''re bound for the Pit when you die, I can feel it. Now tell me... what is it that all of the townsfolk know?"


    "....Its.... the things are here for revenge. We.... there was a party of adventurers. They killed some beasties that had camped out in the temple of light, broke the statue... and.. and after the job was done, the next day one of them raped a girl. Killed her. When the mayor put him on trial, and ordered him stoned to death... the others fought to defend him. We killed one, crippled the others... and then stoned the lot of them to death in the town square the next morning."


    A slow nod... "That sounds partially true... but only partially. I''m afraid at least somewhere in there was a lie, mister smith. You know what that means!"


    The smith gibbered in terror as the devil brought the flail back up; and crushed his knee, bending it backwards and sending shattered bits of bone across the floor. It wasn''t bleeding nearly as much as it should; but the smith only knew the agony was terrible; and that he''d just lost half of his leg.


    "Oh goddess! No. No! I was telling the truth! I mean... maybe the adventurer didn''t do it, maybe he did, but that''s the truth otherwise!"


    The devil gave a low chuckle, and examined the flail; tasting the blood dripping from one of the spikes, and then spitting it out, shaking his head. "And there we have it. Why aren''t you sure he did it?"


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    "Well.. the Paladin with them. She said she wanted to use a spell to see who was telling the truth. And... the mayor said we didn''t need to. He was obviously guilty. Then there was the fight, and... well."


    Praxius looked at the man, and started laughing. "That''s ridiculous! Obviously either the mayor did it, or someone he was protecting. He just blamed the outsiders because they were convenient. Of course he couldn''t let the Paladin use a truth spell. You knew they were innocent, of course. That the whole thing was a farce. Did you throw one of the stones?"


    The smith looked down at the floor, his face a mask of sorrow and misery, tears of more than just pain going down his chest. "..Yes. I... I knew they were innocent. I knew they didn''t do it. But... I threw the stone anyway. The... the Paladin told us that everyone who threw a stone would be cursed, and she wouldn''t rest til we were all punished for our crimes. I didn''t believe her."


    A slow nod. "And you enjoyed it, didn''t you. You enjoyed throwing the stones. Watching the life ooze from their bodies, hearing their cries of pain."


    "...Yes. Damn me to the pits, yes. I enjoyed it."


    "And there we have it. The truth." The devil gave a low chuckle. "Now that I know just what''s going on here, I know how to handle this. But I''ll make you a deal. In exchange for your soul, binding it to my eternal service in Hell when you die, not only will I save you from the pits... but I''ll restore your leg. Give you a bit of hope that you could run, to live a little bit longer... or quite a bit longer if you could get far enough away from this little shithole and make something of yourself."


    "I''ll take it! I''ll do it! Its yours!"


    Praxius studied the man for a moment, and then smiled. His face remained every bit as disturbing to the poor smith; and after a painful rearrangement of the bones, gently unstopped and poured a healing potion on it, before discarding the bottle. It still looked in poor shape; but the bleeding had stopped, and it would likely be able to support his weight.


    "Now, I don''t want you letting the locals know I''m aware of whats going on. So for now, I''ll be leaving you there. Unless this shop burns down in the meantime or something equally unfortunate happens, I''ll release you before I leave."


    He calmly walked to the stairs up, opening the hatch. The smith was too terrified to scream for help, as the devil shut it once more; and pulled a chain taut around the handles, securing it.


    As he stepped back up to the forge, admiring Terra''s work at getting the metal to the right temperature, he smiled. "Excellent work, sweetheart. I think we need to find your new friends, and make plans. It just might be worth staying around for a while."


    ***


    As Kylie and Derek returned to the smithy, they watched the people of the village scrambling. They seemed to be in a rush; ransacking their own homes, looking for anything edible, useful, or even just things to add to the barricade; and dragging them back like a mass of worker ants; but they avoided the adventurers who had ''saved'' them as if they were plague-ridden.


    She could see the work Praxius was doing on the shoulder of the armor; carefully creating a patch and working them back together; she''d learned such techniques herself, as wearing and maintaining armor was considered important for those priests and priestesses of the goddess who served in the field.... and the devil seemed exceedingly skilled at it. It helped that Terra kept pouring fire into it periodically to keep it soft, and help it bind, but still; excellent work.


    Kylie coughed when she arrived; the devil kept his gaze on the armor, but responded. "Welcome back, priestess. I''m sure we have much to discuss."


    She frowned.. "It''s generally polite to look at people who are talking to you... but anyway. They do seem to come back every day. Apparently there was.."


    "Ahem." The devil raised a hand. "I know exactly what''s going on. The only question is what we want to do about it."


    Kylie frowned at the interruption. "Well fine, mister all-knowing devil. Asshole. What''s going on?"


    "First, we can help them win. Burn down the buildings the survivors take refuge in, let the creatures have them. Frankly, its my preferred option, these murderers deserve it. Turn the town to ash and leave. after some looting."


    Kylie glowered. "That''s not going to happen! That.."


    "Second, we can just hang out a few days, and destroy the waves as they come. If we do this again for two days, and I make sure you three do most of the work, the lot of you will get strong enough to use third-circle spells. If we did it for... we''ll say fifteen, sixteen days... you should be able to use fourth-circle spells. After that, it wouldn''t do you any more good. Thats past what I agreed, but it would benefit my granddaughter, and be fast, so I''d still be in."


    Kylie didn''t even bother to try speaking, just glowered at him.


    "Third, we can take out the source of the curse. I will provide exactly zero help with this beyond telling you whats actually causing it, and I might well sabotage your efforts."


    He paused, as if expecting a response that wasn''t coming. "And fourth... we can loot the things that belonged to the adventuring party they murdered... whatever the Paladin had would likely be quite useful for you, Kylie... and just fuck off. Leave them to their fate. As stolen goods, its perfectly legitimate to claim them, and I believe whatever they had is in the mayor''s house; I can sense what was probably the Paladin''s sword there, now that I know what to look for. It would likely be a better fit for you than my flail."


    He glanced at Kylie, finally looking away from his work. "Have to warn you though, the sword might not let you wield it properly while the murderers of its former owner still draw breath."


    All three of them stared at the devil. Kylie looked out at  the villagers and their hurried work, then back at him. "They... murdered a Paladin? I know there was a murder, but... a whole adventuring party?"


    "Accused of a crime the mayor knew they didn''t do, and stoned to death. Every one of those stones that was used for the execution has a bit of curse magic in it, and when the sun rises, calls up a corpse to come help it seek revenge. The spirit of the Paladin animates one of them, the armor appears on it, and it directs them in their attack. All the people who weren''t involved are ignored; apparently they all left a while ago. Only the guilty remain."


    The devil picked up the armor, inspecting it... and then nodded, dipping it into the water. "So. What''s the story? Are you going to help me butcher a village... or am I going to be trying to stop you from lifting a curse laid down by your own goddess?"