Chill, chilly-chill-chill. Here's last time.
The envoys are having some problems. Jeanie and Mohammed are on the way to the hospital. Blake and Willa have left Bob Houston's house (and the carnage therein) and are heading to the cabin, but Blake is badly ill. Samantha is in the basement of said house with Sheriff Manny Wall, and trying to explain why two of his deputies are dead. And Jennifer Joyce is on her way into town, and is bringing along Alfred Johnson, another SAVE envoy, for backup.
Samantha realizes that there's no way to lie her way out of this, and instead, tells Manny the truth: She and her friends investigate and hunt monsters, and Casey Lynch has become a monster and killed his deputies. Manny doesn't quite believe this, but is way too traumatized to do much else. Samantha manages to talk him down from a panic attack and he asks what they should do. Samantha honestly isn't sure, so they all decide to fall back to the cabin and regroup.
Meanwhile, a strange fog has sprung up (Willa nearly drives off the road, but manages to right the car in time). She and Blake arrive at the cabin, but Blake immediately vomits blood - the Unknown disease seems to be getting worse. She manages to get him inside, and Jennifer and Alfred arrive. Alfred, as it happens, is a doctor (a medical examiner, but still) and is schooled in the Restorative Art. He stabilizes and treats Blake, and also helps out Willa (who has some cracked ribs). The others arrive, and everyone pools data. Jennifer does a bit of digging, but isn't able to find anything specific enough to help, but Samantha figures that maybe they didn't finish the funeral - by burning the body.
They decide to head back to Houston's house and investigate the basement. Alfred determines cause of death (broken neck and head trauma). Samantha uses Postcognition and sees the deputies in the basement, looking around the room in horror, and then they turn away as Lynch's body heals. The bones, coal-black, regrow, the flesh fills in, and he stands up. He snaps one deputy's neck and caves in the other's skull with his fist, and then bares black teeth in hunger, but stops and salutes before sinking into the floor.
Manny calls the Blue Mountain Hospital in John Day and checks on Jeanie and Mohammed; both are stable. The disease seems to have run its course. Samantha calls BB and checks in, and BB notes that things are fine, although it's snowing pretty hard. Manny is confused by this. Normally weather starts in town and moves toward the ranch. The envoys worry that the draugr has gone back to the ranch to eat. They know that iron hurt Lynch before, and they only have a few shells with iron left. They decide to stop by Lonnie Patton's place and borrow some rebar. Blake also makes the effort to make some iron arrowheads for Jennifer, and Manny grabs a gas can and some flares. Thus armed, they head to the ranch.
The snow worsens as they approach, but Manny plows through until the truck stops and stalls. They get out, and start plodding through the snow toward the house, but then they see the silhouette of a man. BB, in the house, sees the man as well and realizes it's Lynch, and opens the window and yells at him to fuck off. Lynch charges and turns into the flayed bull, but the envoys are ready.
Willa and Alfred shoot the bull, and Jennifer hits it with an arrow. It stumbles and collapses, and Alfred shoots it again, killing it. It changes back into Lynch, and Manny splashes it with gas and lights it up. It burns for a while, but then the fire goes out, and the corpse is still there, charred. Alfred senses the Unknown, and it's still strong and present...and Lynch sinks into the ground.
The envoys quickly take stock. They only have a couple more iron-filled shells, and Jennifer has two more arrowheads. Simply burning the body didn't work - maybe they need a pyre, something more funerary? Alfred hears the scream of an animal from the barn, and the envoys realize the creature is feasting again. BB, Samantha, Blake, and Manny start building a pyre, while Felix, Alfred, Willa, and Jennifer go after the draugr.
They open the barn and find it eating a horse by the double-handful in its giant form. When it sees them, it snarls and the barn goes completely dark. The envoys don't have a bead to draw, and they're sitting ducks...but then the light comes back, if only around them. Felix stands there with his arm outstretched, finally conjuring the Sphere of Protection. Willa taunts the creature and tries to lure it out, but all it does is growl from the dark. Alfred, though, concentrates on sensing it, feels its direction, and fires. He hears a howl of pain and Jennifer and Willa fire in the same direction. They see the giant collapse and shrink to human form as the darkness dissipates.
Alfred picks up Lynch's body and carries it back to the pyre, and Samantha, noting Manny holding a hatchet (to chop wood for said pyre), realizes that for all its desire to be respected and given a funeral, Lynch is still an undead monster and there are preventative measures for such things - like beheading. They chop off head and burn his body to black ash, which Felix collects and arranges to bury on the ranch, away from prying eyes.
The envoys head back to Boise, ready for a long, well-deserved rest. Manny says that he'll find a way to cover what happened here, although it's likely to cost him his job. Willa invites him to come the ranch, if he wants.
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