The defenders' sudden success bolsters Iomenna's confidence yet again, but she can feel her energy beginning to ebb away. She hefts her hammer to attempt one more desperate attack against the zombie in front of her.
As her weapon reduces the undead figure ahead of her to paste, Iomenna digs her feet into the dust, determined to hold the line with her friends until her final breath if that is what she has to do. We're almost through, she promises herself, not knowing if it was really true. Hold on just a little bit longer.
As Merlin sifts into a flanking position, Darya brings her blade around in another vicious slash at the undead trying to get at her feeling the satisfying thunk of her blade striking home.
Kelly slashes at the legs of the zombie in front of her. The intensity is taking its toll on her, she can't keep this up for much longer.
Controlled rage: +4 Dex, 1 round left
Crowd control(urban barbarian): +1 Attack and dodge
| Dex 21 | AC 19 (T17 FF13) | Reflex +6 |
Luci quickly set Azura down on one of the tables, checking to see if she was still stable.
"There any healers in here? We've got wounded!"
* thunk thunk thunk *
Iomenna crushes a zombie, Kelly finishes off the one nearest her, and Darya smashes her sword down on the zombie between herself and Merlin, dismembering its leg and felling it.
The acolyte rushes back toward Luci, shouting, "I can help!" (This is probably a bad idea, since now the acolyte isn't near the front to help there, but he's just a young fellow with no combat experience.)
Sario and Bahram pick up a table lamp, ignite it, and hurl it down on to the furniture pile. Flaming oil splashes over the zombie nearby and also starts burning the one trapped under the chair.
One zombie shuffles toward Iomenna:
It pushes up against her, slamming at her with its flailing hands.
Another zombie turns to Merlin:
Fortunately he's too well defended for it to hurt him... so far!
Merlin swallows his fear, stepping in front of the doorway to help protect the entrance.
Darya flank!
Merlin holds his scimitar, waiting for the most opportune moment...
CRUNCH! Merlin's attack lops off half the zombie's head and it staggers, then lands at his feet.
Iomenna stands in the entry of the Defender's Heart, her pulse pounding in her ears, her armor splattered with gore from the zombies felled by her hammer and Kelly's blade. The heat of the flames makes her head reel and her eyes water, yet she holds on to her focus to watch for more enemies. Her vision begins to swim in and out of focus as another zombie shambles forward and slams its decaying fists into her shoulder, nearly dislocating it from its socket.
Damn, she thinks, Is there no end to these things?
That is when she looks up and notices that there is, in fact, an end to them. In fact, the zombie standing in front of her is that end. Summoning up her final dregs of strength, Iomenna raises her hammer one last time and brings it down toward the zombie.
Got it, she thinks with a smile, as her vision begins to fade. She takes a step back, half conscious of the fact that she'll need to support herself, half stumbling just to keep her balance. She finds the table propped up as a barricade behind her and her friends and leans against it to keep from collapsing. As her balance continues to elude her, she calls out in a weak voice, "Anybody wanna help a lady inside?"
Iomenna crushes the last zombie utterly, steps back toward the cover of the table, and the din of combat finally dies down. Acrid smoke floats by the doorway from the zombies slowly burning in the lamp oil amid the pile of ruined furniture.
The acolyte rushes over to assist Azura, carefully checks her wound, then takes up several pieces of cloth and stanches the wound while removing the chunk of furniture stuck in her abdomen. She shudders and starts to choke as her breathing is interrupted, then the acolyte casts a simple healing spell.
Azura sighs and her eyes barely flutter open.
The acolyte says, "Gather round, warriors, and I'll do what I can to revitalize you."
He sends forth two waves of warm, soothing divine power.
Azura stands and brushes herself off. She looks very worried about the room and says, "Defender's Heart? Are we all that's left?"
The innkeeper says, "We've had our hands full just fighting off the undead and demons. We don't know who else has survived out there. But the city's in a bad way."
One of the guards says, "We should try to get in touch with the city's guard, or the Eagle Watch. They must've survived, they're the best of the best."
One of the refugees says, "We need to be able to reach the river if we want to have water!"
The innkeeper replies, "There's a well in the basement, but yeah, if we get cut off from the Sellen, could be bad if the water in the well gets tainted from evil magic or too many diseased corpses. Speaking of which, we should probably bury those zombie cadavers, or burn them, before plague sets in."
After getting some assistance back over the barricade, Iomenna practically collapses into a chair near where the acolyte is working. As he sends out the pulses of healing energy, Iomenna inhales deeply and, as she exhales, whispers a short prayer, "Gods of light and goodness be praised... iomedae, Defender of the Righteous, be praised..."
Feeling greatly relieved by the acolyte's healing, Iomenna stands again and sets about cleaning the gore off of her gear. She moves back toward the door where the other guard is still posted and resumes her station. "I don't think my shift was over quite yet."
Wiping the cold sweat from his face with his shield arm, Merlin looks around at the carnage. The mutilated corpses gave his nose pause. The sudden silence was startling.
Bringing up his weary head, Merlin then peers around at the survivors.
What conviction! What resolve!
He takes a few steps closer to the door, as a warm (kind of familiar) sensation suddenly rushes over him. He notices the wounds on the others begin to knit.
I did that earlier. Sort of, but same results when I touch that woman...
Merlin begins to gather kindling to start a fire to burn the corpses.
Sario rushes down the stairs to find everyone in the common room.
"Did we lose anyone? Have they stopped for now?"
She looks slowly around the room, watching Merlin walk towards the door and starting to gather bodies. She moves out to give him a hand with piling corpses, she smiles at the busted up furniture laying outside the entrance. "I have provided us with the kindling and large pieces to keep the fire going at least." She giggles a little, a bit unhinging to those around her.
After the bodies are piled she will head back in to see if she can help other places, and to tend to the children that she managed to rescue.
Striding into the inn as the last zombie falls, Darya is absolutely silent, her eyes going back and forth between Luci and Azura as the acolytes ply their healing. As Azura's eyes open, she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, seeing the same utter relief reflected in Luci's face.
Moving quickly across the space the flame tressed aasimar scoops up the blonde bard, giving her a kiss before putting her down and turning to give Luci one as well.
"Sorry, just really needed to do that." she mutters brushing away few tears of utter relief.
Azura is taken somewhat off-guard by Darya's sudden show of affection, but does not protest. She does glance down at her ruined dress and say, "I'm covered in blood! Ugh, need to do something about that at some point." Then, taking in the surroundings, she asks, "Is anyone still hurt? I have some minor healing magic available."
Kelly steps back from the fallen corpses, trips over some unidentifiable bit of debris, and falls back into a sitting position against the barricade. She stares out across the detritus of combat, panting. She puts a hand to her head where the zombie struck her, it comes away bloody. She looks up at Azura, saying "I don't mean to be a bother, but I've got a bit of a scratch. I'll be ok, it's not bad, but if you're offering, I mean..." she trails off awkwardly.
Fatigued: -2 Str and Dex. 10 rounds left
| Str 8, Dex 15 | AC 15 (T13 FF13) | Reflex +3 |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Luci was relieved to see Azura healed, and she'd been about to show that when Darya beat her to the punch. Not that she was complaining, mind.
"Gods, I was worried about you," she told the bard, pulling her close and not really caring about the blood (though, to be fair, that was more from having already gotten some on her earlier while carrying Azura).
Azura briefly presses her forehead to Luci's, then says, "Let me help the wounded here for a moment."
She kneels down and gives Kelly a brief, simple touch on the arm that fills the halfling woman with warmth and refreshes her. Then she stands up and turns back to Luci and says, "So what do we do now?"
The innkeeper says, "Well, we have lots of rooms, people might as well start figurin' out where they're gonna sleep. I'm gonna need some help gettin' food ready for everyone."
One of the survivors says, "I'll help with that."
Another one says, "I- I'm a carpenter! I can work on shoring up the doors and windows."
"That would be a good idea. I doubt that will be the last time we have to deal with undead or gods knows what else, trying to get in here. As good a defense as a sword or an axe are, a solid wall and sturdy door are better." Darya replies resting a hand on the carpenters shoulder, lending a feeling of importance as she maintains eye contact hoping to boost the man's spirits.
"I'll give you a hand; my dad's a carpenter as well, I've picked up a few of the basics over the years."
Mentioning him made her glad that her family was still out of the city, she just hoped that they could stay safe and that she'd get the chance to let them know she was still alive.
Sario brings the children back down to the main room, approaching the shop keeper. She takes them off to the side of the room, "Now how can you two help us out? We really could use your help with keeping this place running, I don't think we could do it without you."
She moves with the children towards the inn keeper.
"How can these two brave little ones help out?"
"Ah, perfect," says Kimroth, the innkeeper, to Sario. "You little ones can help me a bit in the kitchen, and we can get you something to eat at the same time!"
Luci offers to assist the carpenter, and the two of them start checking the inn for supplies. Kimroth notes that he has a few things in the basement, but he usually doesn't keep a lot of spare wood lying around, aside from firewood. If you want to barricade the windows and doors you'll need to get a supply of materials, either by breaking up some of the furniture, or by going forth to scavenge from other nearby buildings.
Merlin and a few of the survivors start dragging the damaged and burned zombie corpses into a pile and, with a little more oil and wood, make an ad hoc pyre to burn them. The pyre is placed some distance from the doorway so that the acrid smell of the greasy smoke doesn't fill Defender's Heart.
The acolyte says, "Is anyone else seriously injured? If not I can see to smaller scrapes and bruises." Some of the refugees line up to have their injuries tended.
In the silence you're left with a feeling of being at loose ends. You know that more will happen, but you don't know when, or what form it will take.
As Iomenna finishes up her shift at guard duty, she chats with the other guard, trying to find anything she can about this area of the city. "You know, I grew up in the New Kenabres district, so I'm not too familiar with this part of the city. What do you know about the area? Where are the major facilities? You know, smiths, armories, barracks...that sort of thing?" She pats the scabbard at her hip, "I'm thinking this thing isn't going to be much good as long as it's broken in half. I could really use some more sturdy armor too. This stuff is mostly just for show."
After the gruesome duty of body burning is over, Merlin walks around the Heart, introducing himself.
Hello. I am Merlin. I have some smithing skills;
along with some crafting skills if we could get a forge secured for weapons.
Also, I served in the army for a bit, so I am familiar with those types of duties.
He approaches Luci.
I would recommend sending out a scouting party out to secure the buildings the border the Heart.
He looks her in the eyes.
I will volunteer.
"Restoring the forge will be very important. In addition to keeping out weapons and armor in good condition to defend this place but there's quite a few other things we'll need." Darya says looking around."I'll go with those setting out to secure the forge. We should also clean out the gore in the stables before the risk of disease sets in."
Sario will volunteer to clean out the stables, taking a bit of cloth from a table she will wrap it around her face to keep some of the smell at bay.
"If we clean out the stables we can either use them for their intended use again or we can turn them into something else. I can clear the physical but the tortured animal spirits will remain."
Sario's eyes begin to glow blue, she holds Dragz hand still and concentrates on the dagger.
Iomenna overhears Merlin volunteer to scout out and secure the surrounding buildings. She calls over to him from the doorway, "Merlin, if you need an extra set of hands to help clear out the neighbors, I'll be glad to join you. Just let me give the other guard the rest of his break and we can head out."
Merlin nods to Iomenna.
I was hoping not to be going out alone...haha., he winks at Darya.
In response to Iomenna's questions about the city, one of the guards says, "Well, we're in the north, outer ring of the city. The market district isn't too far from here, so that might be lucky - we may be able to organize groups to scavenge for food and supplies there."
Kimroth says, "There's a road that goes west of here and into the heart of the city. I'm sure that all the main roads are gonna be choked with monsters and wicked things, though."
The guard continues, "The market's a few block north of us, but there's a big fissure that opened in the ground when the attack happened. I'm not sure entirely how to get around it."
"If we want to get to the Eagle Watch, they had a meeting hall not too far south of here," says the guard. "Or we could try to link up with the crusaders, who had a disorganized camp, or with the witch hunters, though I think they mostly operated out of the cathedral, which has been smashed."
The acolyte chimes in, saying, "I'm willing to guess that the demons are going to be gathered mostly around the old Wardstone, so the closer you go to the old city, the more dangerous it is likely to get."
Pointing at Darya, Luci and himself, Merlin sates, We actually came from that way. There are two fissures, one on the east and one on the west, and there's a small alley that just runs between the two and makes a straight shot to the market.
"I feel that food should be our first priority," Kelly says while trying to get the blood out of her hair with a dirty rag. "I'll go to the market, with anyone else who is going."
She stops and turns to Azura, "Oh, and thank you for the healing."
Merlin makes his rounds for introductions.
I suggest that we shore up the exits in this building, clean and clear up the stables; since it is connected to this building, and set off in the morning for food and supplies.
"Well, if there are any scavenging or scouting groups going out, count me in," Luci said, "and if we're making any longer-ranged trips, I'd like to see if we can get to my place. My dad's tools might have survived the damage and a good set of extra carpentry tools can't hurt."
Azura says, "I'm going to go down to the well and draw up some water so I can get cleaned up a bit. Kelly, you can come along if you need some water to wash your hair." She heads down the staircase to the basement.
Kimroth says, "So, if there's a scouting party, how's that gonna work? Who goes, who stays? We need at least a few blades here in case more monsters come back. For that matter, who's in charge? Plus if we get too many more people I'm gonna need help with all the cooking and organizing. The kids are cute but they can't do everything and they need time to adjust to being stuck here without their parents, too."
One of the guards says, "We should definitely scout out the market, once we know what we need."
Kimroth continues, "We also gotta figure out sleeping arrangements. I think at most this place could hold about 250 people, but that would be fillin' up the common space and having about four people per room. For now we have lots of space, so if you want to get a room of your own, now's the time."
Azura's voice floats up from downstairs, "Save me a spot please, Luci."
Checking out the stables in back, you think it will probably take about four hours to clean up if two or three people work on it. Some of the refugees that you saved can help with that. One of the refugees, luckily, is a butcher and says that he can carve up the horse meat and preserve some of it for later.
The small forge in the stables is really only good for shoeing horses, but it could be upgraded. If you acquire some extra stones you can expand the fire pit. You'll need a couple bellows and a lot of coal, plus some larger stores of higher-quality iron, and extra tongs and hammers for different sizes. You'll also need some leather and glue. With all of that, you could turn it into a functional smithy that could produce or repair weapons and armor.
"I'd recommend," says one of the guards slowly, "That for now we don't send out more than one scouting team at a time. We just don't have enough people to defend this place AND risk going to multiple parts of the city."
Merlin assists with cleaning and shoring up the stables.
I will help with the stables and look at how to set up a real forge in there.
He then looks around at the poor state of affairs that is the people.
I understand that we are tired, scared, angry even. This situation is without mercy. We will need to be strong. Are we really going to allow these demons monsters to defeat us?! I say that we are made of iron! We are made of light!
He looks at the open mouth faces, staring at him as he gives his speech.
I was raised here. This is my town. And, by Sarenrae, I will redeem this town!
A light bean to glow inside of him as he spoke. It is faint, almost unseeable, but it grew strongest once he mentioned Sarenrae.
The butcher joins Merlin in the stables. "We'll need somewhere to smoke this meat. Otherwise we're gonna be having horsemeat stew for the next three days," he says. The clean-up job is nasty, filthy work. Large amounts of offal have to be scooped into buckets and then dumped outside the building. The stableboy's body is brought down, wrapped in linen, and prepared for burial. Overall it is a thoroughly unpleasant experience - but once the stables are cleaned, you'll at least have an area where you can keep animals, if you find any that you want to keep around for food or wool or milk.
Merlin silently mouths words of anguish as he cleans the stables.
During the grisly chore, he accidentally casts another orison; when his pail was empty and he was going to go fill it when 2 gallons of water appeared over the bucket, filling it over.
Oh, boy.
Iomenna sits at a table and listens to the others discuss their planned outings. As Merlin heads out to the stables and Azura begins to leave for the well, Iomenna stands and calls for them to wait a moment, "Thank you both for the work. Kelly, Luci, we should absolutely do some scouting, but perhaps we should wait until the morning. The last thing we need is for any of us to get caught outdoors in the dark."
She strides into the middle of the room and looks around at the assembled warriors and common folk, her eyes full of concern. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she launches into her spiel. "Look. This situation couldn't get much worse, but Merlin is right. We have to be strong. The only way we can do that is if we have some direction, some structure. If we're going to rebuild this city, we have to start by reestablishing order, and that means some of us have to take on specific duties. I know any number could make capable military leaders, some would be magnificent in keeping stock of our provisions, some would even make good diplomats if we run into other groups of survivors who'd rather compete for resources than combine forces. Before we spend too much time sorting out all of that, though, we should find a leader for our community here." She pauses again, shifting uncomfortably as she thinks about what she is going to say next. Beads of sweat begin to form around her temples, but she grips the hilt of her sword, reminding herself of her duty to her fellow survivors.
After she steels herself once again, Iomenna lays out her thoughts to the others, "We need a leader to guide our efforts. And...and I think that I might be fit for the job. I know I'm young, and I may not be as wise or as powerful as some of you. But I know this city. I love this city. And I've grown up training with the goal of protecting this city and the world. With everyone's help, I think I could help keep us together through the tough times ahead and get us back on our feet. So, there it is. What do you think?"
Kimroth says slowly, "I think when a crisis hits, the people in charge are the ones who take the initiative to guide people to safety and make a difference. An' I think that's what you're doing."
"But in that vein, I'm gonna need some help to keep things together. Someone's gonna need to inventory our food supplies and whatever stuff the various survivors brought with 'em, so we know what we have. I can't do that very well with just my one arm. An' we need someone to head up these search-and-scavenge parties, preferably someone who knows the city a bit and isn't afraid of a scrap."
Kelly raises her tiny hand. "I can keep an inventory of supplies. I did that every day I cooked for the crusader camps."
"I'll head up the search parties," Luci offered.
"I will put my name in for setting up scouting parties and patrols, I have some experience with that by myself." Sario offers.
"we should get this place locked down and then tomorrow we can go out and scout."
Merlin reenters the common room, having just finished cleaning out the stables.
He is drench.
I seem to be...ugh...I am finished., he states lamely; eyes looking at the floor.
He listens to the current conversation for a minute.
I have experience in the military, if that helps.