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Garran grasps his symbol of Iomedae, raising it high. 'Oh Great Iomedae, Sword of Justice, grant me a shred of your divine resistance." With his protective spell in place, Garran says: "I can try to wrench the spear free so the doors may open. If you all will stand ready for whatever may come out."
Garran is hoping it is the noblewoman, still inside somehow, but he isn't counting on it.
Domitian approaches to within 10 feet of the doors, hefting his hammer in both hands. "Ready." The big man casts a spell, and looks towards the doors.
Ashing turns and joins the rest of the group, she proceeds to briefly dig in her bag putting on an odd white mask with a thin purple smile painted on it. She draws her sword. No one could be alive...open the door.
"Be on guard - there is definitely something evil in there. If you give me a few seconds, I might be able to find out more about it."
After a long moment of concentration, you pick up on two distinct auras. Each of them evil, and both intimidating.
"There are two evil creatures in there, moderately strong ones. Hope you're all ready for a tough fight."
Domitian tenses his arms and prepares to swing. "Open the doors"
Domitian brings his hammer down in a swift strike.
Garran tenses his muscles, then yanks the spear, hoping to unwedge it, and allow the door to swing open.
Garran curses, then gives the weapon another pull.
Serena draws and readies her crossbow, aiming at the door.
Garran managed to wrench the spear free the second time. The doors open wide as two rather mutilated corpses, who must have been Argentea's handmaidens, turn and take their first steps out, and they look hungry.
As they do, Dragos' arrow flies true right by Garran's head and sinks into one of their shoulders. Though it appears it did little to slow their advance.
Soon after, Domitian brings his hammer arcing down hard into the same shoulder dealing some decent damage to her arm, but not quite as much as you would think as the fallen handmaiden closed the remaining distance to Garran. The other to Domitian.
Your deathwatch ability, and some common sense reveal these once beautiful women to be undead.
Dragos lets loose another arrow, aiming at the corpse damaged by Domitian. Curses! Shooting in a fight is not as easy as hunting! I mustn't hit those two guys...
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Domitian's motions, jerky at first, suddenly calm as he levels his gaze at the uninjured creature engaged with him. "This is your place no longer. In the name of Abadar and the order that he is, you shall end today!" As he says this, a wooden holy symbol he wears around his neck flares to life, and his gaze becomes much more determined.
He takes a small step back and takes another swing.
Starting combat now. She say's aloud in her usual cold tone.
Ashling draw's a Dueling sword attacking one of the corpses, charging into combat without even a hint of hesitation or care.
'Now, eh?" Garran asks Ashling in a conversational tone.
Dropping the spear, he draws Yuln's sword and slashes at the nearest handmaid.
"Hah!"
Serena fires her crossbow at the walking corpse closest to her.
The zombified handmaidens fall one after the other to your well struck blows as whatever the force was that held them was released and their spirits freed.
Eyes wide and bow hand shaking, Dragos looks at the bodies. My first real battle. The living dead. This is scary, and yet... "Desna's dimples." he pants. "You mean to tell me that you guys do this for a job?"
He dismounts his steed and starts looking at the ground for tracks. "Do the fae use undead? I don't know much about them, but from folk tales they didn't strike me as necromancers."
"I don't know if this is the work of the fey, or not. Animating the dead is an act most foul, whoever is doing it. An abomination." Garran takes a moment to wipe the blade of his sword, before he scabbards the weapon. "Iomedae, lend me your vision." Gripping his holy symbol, the cleric casts detect magic, and has a look inside the carriage.
Domitian looks on the fallen women with a mixture of sadness and anger on his face. "Whoever did this, it isn't right. Fae or not, they need to be brought to justice for this vile act." He spends a moment cleaning off his hammer, then takes a deep breath and moves to examine the carriage with Garran.
The carriage had been thoroughly stripped of value. But Garran managed to find something they missed. A small jewelry box under the seat. Inside it lay a signet ring, some earrings, pearl-inlaid bracelets, two silver and one golden necklace, and a sapphire pendant.
Dragos scans the ground, and finds some tracks that hadn't yet been buried by snow, but were close, that lead into the forest on an easily discerned trail. More than one set of trails, but numbers were still guesswork.
"The lady's valuables. With luck we can return them to her." Garran adds the box to his backpack.
He notices Dragos searching the ground. 'Did you find us a trail, Dragos?"
Sure he would return all the valuables, don't we have Mister Goody Two-Shoes here. Hope those stories of rich rewards turn out to be true.
"Yupp. Several fresh tracks, heading into the forest. We should hurry, more snow and they'll disappear. All ready?"
He mounts back on Cornelius, keeping an eye on the trail.
Domitian replies with a curt nod "aye, lead the way", as he seats his hammer back on his shoulder and prepares to follow.
As the trail enters the full expanse of the Border Wood, it passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.
The packed snow hides a rope, strung through the undergrowth to a spiked log suspended high in the trees.
The act of raising the undead is not an inherently vile act...simply an act that we are told is evil. if you look at it through a clear lens it's no different than magic that controls the mind or shoots masses of fire. Ashling tries to explain, she keeps her odd mask on wiping blood from her blade. She continues on following down the road. Oh and we should stop, there's a spiked log in the trees up there and a rope down below
"That is one view, yes," says Serena. "Can you disarm the trap? Even if we avoid it, a passerby could still fall victim."
Domitian looks at Ashling, anger on his face, his eyes flashing a brief bit of color. "Not inherently vile? Did you see those things back there? They made a mockery of those women! A caricature of life, tormenting those poor women even beyond the grave. It's one thing to kill someone in battle, or even to enchant their minds, though I'm not entirely on board with that either - but to mock life itself the way the undead do is very, very different."
The big man takes a slow, deep breath, before continuing in a slightly more calm manner. "I know some take the same view as you, good people who believe differently than I do. That doesn't make them right. I disagree, strongly." At that, he let's the matter drop, and looks toward the immediate threat.
At Serena's question, he nods in agreement. "Aye, we should disable it. Was the chest there left as bait for this trap?"
Just as Domitian's temper had risen at Ashley's words, Dragos' flares at the paladin's. "Oh, not entirely on board with mind control, are you? Moving bodies that the soul has departed, empty husks that would be left for carrion, is worse than robbing someone of their own thoughts? Pray tell, how is raising the undead a mockery of life, but enchanting a mind not a mockery of free will, something that's possibly even more important?"
It's evident from his sudden bitterness that you've hit a sore spot.
I'll see what i can do about it, Ashling responds, getting to work on trying to get rid of the trap so that no one get's hurt. Maintaining a stoic monotone as she responds to the angry knight, You misunderstand my point, what i'm saying is in the end it doesn't matter. Magic is magic, another tool no different than a blade. When it comes to the battlefield and war, there's no honor to be had on one...only death She pauses for a minute focusing on the trap in front of her, I mean if you think about it, the people are already dead. Wouldn't this save lives in the end? Soldier's still living wouldn't have to risk their lives in combat, or at least wouldn't as frequently...And for the record i think mind control is worse than any necromancy.
"Mind control is almost always used to evil ends, it is true." Garran tries to explain. "The magic of enchantment, however, is not inherently evil. It is a weapon, as Ashling has said." Garran's face takes on a dour expression. "The same is not true for the animation of undead. The reason is simple enough. When we die, the soul passes on. When a zombie is raised a portion of that person's soul is dragged back from the afterlife. The soul is then corrupted by exposure to to its now dead body, causing it further harm. Furthermore, the now rent soul is subject to another's will, just as if they had been subjected to the most powerful of mind control. Even after death, a being can still be subject to harm, make no mistake about it."
"Not to mention that enchantments are almost always short-term effects, and can be resisted. Those women would have been stuck in that state indefinitely had we not showed up." He looks at Dragos with a kind look and says "I agree with you in the worth of free will, and individual events of enchantment can be exceedingly evil depending on the circumstance. However, some enchantments can also be used for good. As Garran says, the two are not the same - one is inherently evil, regardless of use, while the other can and often is used in evil ways."
"We should continue to search for the lady. More people will be harmed if we do not find the source of this unnatural winter," says Serena, her voice quiet as she glances at the other members of the party.
"Hurting the soul, huh?" says Dragos sullenly. "I don't know much about that, but I can see that it might be evil. Still... Oh, I'm no scholar of magic, what do I know. I'll just feather with arrows any other undead that comes my way. We'll leave as soon as we get this trap out of the way."
With a few moments careful inspection, Ashling soon disables the deadly trap, rendering it useless by severing the rope holding the log from the triggering mechanism.
I stand by my view point, magic is simply a tool no different than any weapon...the person behind that act was vile, the magic however is not. I'm done here, let us continue on our way. The young girl states firmly continuing down the path way.
Domitian begins to follow, but then pauses when his gaze falls back on the large chest. "There might be more of the lady's belongings in that chest, or things that might aid our fight to retrieve her. Was the chest part of the spiked log trap? Is it safe to open?" He looks closer at the chest for a moment.
I'll take a look, your eye's are not trained to spot traps Ashling move's back to check the chest for traps
The chest had had very little to do with the trap, besides providing a potential lure.
"If it's no longer trapped, let's check inside, there may be something useful."
Ashling back's away Check it then, it's all your's
"They probably would have looted it first. Unless there is a hidden compartment." Garran casts a wary eye at the surrounding forest. It feels like a thousand unseen eyes are on him.
"Never know until you check" Domitian says, as he tries to open the chest.
The chest is surprisingly unlocked, and hadn't yet frozen shut. You find it to be empty.
(Waste of bloody time...) The big man makes a small grunt of irritation as he closes the chest. "Nothing. Must have just been bait." He returns to the path, ready to continue on.
"Huh. Disappointing. Let's be on our way." says Dragos, spurring Cornelius towards the tracks.
Let's go then, there's work to be done Ashling once again proceeds down the path with or without the others
Garran follows along, he watches the forest for ambush. The trap is proof that the marauders expected to be pursued.
Serena follows after the others, keeping her eyes out for anything unusual.