"Not a problem," Luther says, either not have dwelled upon it or not seeing the worth in admitting if he had. Valeria would likely be the first to notice but everyone would be able to easily see the Luther carried no obvious weapons. He had packed a bit into his pack but apart from a fiddle in a case there was nothing for him to use as a weapon. He did not even have any armor.
At the wagon, he approaches the vehicle despite the warning that had been left.
"Stay back for a moment," he said calmly.
Scath watches the male two-leg approach the wagon, and the Lynx tenses in the tree, ready to fight or flee, depending on what comes out of the wagon. Warned them He thinks, his lip curling up exposing fangs. Not natural
But the Lynx is ready to see what he can do if something he can do needs to be done.
Trusk notices the message in the dirt and sees the arrow pointing toward the wagon. The crude handwriting and lack of proper structure makes him believe it was written quickly, as though whoever wrote it was in peril.
"Did anyone see who wrote this? Check the area for any bodies. Someone had to be in that wagon."
Seeing Luther moving to investigate the wagon Trusk offers him a small bit of advice.
"Luther, maybe you shouldn't be so quick to approach by yourself. Hastily scrawled warnings usually have some merit to them, and a little caution can go a long way."
Drawing his sword, Trusk follows Luther in slowly, keeping a gap of about 15 feet between them. Just enough space to quickly provide aid if it's needed. As he does so, he glances in Valeria's direction.
That woman is going to try something. I just know it...
"Don't worry about the writing, it was an ally who wrote this. But the wagon do seem dangerous." She takes her crossbow out and loads it. Once withing range, she tries to feel the magic on the wagon.
Wylliam can't suppress a smile, hearing Trusk surprised about the crude message.
The message comes from a certain intelligent cat. I'm sure Valeria and i shall grin the day he realises we were right.
He draws his bow, ready to shoot at anything hostile that might jump out of the wagon.
(Since google drive is no good on tablet, Wylliam moves 1left, 1up.)
Luther moves around to the end of the wagon, trying to get a look inside.
Alexis takes a step backwards, worried about the party spreading.
The five of you approach the caravan, keeping your eyes set on the surrounding woodlands, a sense of immediate danger seems to have you all edge. Scath sits crouched in the bushes, keeping an eye out for any approaching threat. The caravan looks to be that of the tax collectors, but no tax collector is to be found. However, there does appear to be damage done to it. The woods creak and moan as the dying trees are whipped back and forth by the chilling winds. The smell of decomposing leaves and wood fill the narrow road, masking the scent of what is coming.
Alexis - You do not sense anything with detect magic.
As you all approach the caravan, your caution pays off, and within the woods you can see small shadowed figures approaching. Five enemies surround you on all sides, each no bigger than Scath himself. As they get closer, you begin to discern their flaking, scaly flesh from the decomposing armor and the rotting spear in hand. They appear as kobolds to you, but kobolds long since dead.
Initiative Order:Wylliam/Alexis -> Luther -> Enemy -> Trusk/Scath -> Valeria
Most of you have plenty of time to react, but others are still caught off guard by the startling approach of zombies.
Wylliam isn't too happy with the fog.
"By Erastil's grace, this makes the bow pretty much useless. Well, that leaves it head-on. Alexis, we'll take the punches, you might want to stay behind us."
Move: 3 squares to the right, while switching from bow to longsword.
Standard: Wylliam takes a defensive stance.
"All right, let's see what's coming."
"This is worrisome," Luther said stepping back to the others and setting his pack down. Watching the three shapes move in from the fog, he rolls his shoulders and bounces from foot to foot, loosening up.
Alexis smiles at Wylliam's comment. "If you haven't noticed, I have changed."
She makes a quick move with her hands, and two force projects come forth from her hand, dancing in the fog and striking the creature (the nertheastern most) with a strong thrust!
Wylliam shakes his head, smiling..
"How could i forget.......but i'm still going to be the meatshield when need be."
Trusk takes a few steps towards the rest of the group before exclaiming, "Let them close and don't try shooting them yet. I've got a trick or two up my sleeve for just such an occasion."
Round 1 Summary
Alexis unleashes twin bolts of arcane energy at one the kobolds, burning its flesh and causing moderate damage. Stepping back in front of Alexis to prepare for close quarters combat, Wylliam switches to his longsword. Luther closes the gap between himself and his allies, preparing for action.
The kobolds continue their steady advance. The western most group converge to a small group closing in on Luther. On the other side, the singed kobold approaches the moving target and clumsily stabs at Wylliam with its decomposing spear.
The kobold on the southeastern portion of the trail makes its way towards Trusk, the largest pile of fresh meat in front of it. As it attempts a stab the half-orc, its spear gets lodged in the mud, only managing to fling dirt and grime in his face.
Scath suppresses a growl as the abomination shuffles through the underbrush. Keeping low to the ground, he sneaks through the underbrush to sneak up on the nearest undead, keeping low in the brush.
Once in position, the feline snaps out with a growl, his teeth aiming for the dead flesh.
Seeing the thing still standing after taking her spells, Alexis state the obvious:
"This are not regular kobolds!"
...These were kobolds? Valeria mutters, her memory drawing a blank . Her normally fine monster identification skills were perhaps a little rusty. Still, they'd go down like any other foe. They were probably weak to... being killed?
She steps forward eagerly, hoping to bottleneck the larger group rushing towards her and Luther, and taking her sword back for a broad sweep at the closest beast.
"Pharasma take your pitiful souls! she cries, swinging
19 if they're undead.
Alexis see Scath alone against one of the creature, and thus shots the kobold with her crossbow, recharging it right after and taking a step back.
! !
Luther advances, stepping in just the right places to avoid the thrusts of the kobold weapons and swings hard for a snout.
Wylliam sees a figure heading up to him.
"What the....abominations..bagh, these need to be put down."
Wylliam shifts his balance sideways, making the swing for an attack.
Trusk, seeing the group surrounded, moves into the center of the group to combat the horde of undead. However, the adjacent kobold lashes out at you with a powerful claw.
Its diminutive size makes the wound no worse than a scratch. Once in position, you call out to Gorum and unleash a wave of positive energy, engulfing the kobolds.
The dark magic that animates them seems to clash with your positive energy, diminishing the power.
Stalking the kobold out of the forest is success, but the ambush was not. Despite being caught off guard, the leather armor seems to have melded with its scaly hide over the years to form a tough defense, deflecting your claws.
Your years of hunting down undead has taught you to descern their various natural defenses; these zombie kobolds appear to be resistant to bludgeoning and piercing damage.
Charging the closest advancing kobold, your greatsword swings down with divine force, cutting the kobold from shoulder to hip, cleaving him in two.
Your crossbow bolt flies through the air, cutting through the pouring rain and piercing the kobold directly in the abdomen. To your surprise, it appears completely unaware that it was even shot.
Parrying the vermin's attack, you follow up with a devastating blow, removing its head from its neck and sending the creature to its knees as it collapses, dead, in the mud.
As you see Valeria charge towards one of the kobolds, you make your way towards it in an attempt to double team it. However, she cuts the creature in two before you reach and switch targets to the next closest victim. Your clenched fists lands firmly in its chest, staggering it, but you get the impression that it did not feel the impact of the blow as much as you would have expected.
ENEMIES TURN
The kobold nearest Scath turns to face assaulting lynx, swinging its spear high, expecting a traditional humanoid sized enemy.
The attack goes straight over Scath's head and misses completely.
The two kobolds adjacent Luther begin there steady attacks, lunging with spears at the bare-fisted bartender.
Their moves are all to predictable for the practiced bartender, who deflects them from his body. As the rain continues to pour, the fog clears, revealing the decrepit appearance of the creatures. A flash of lightning heralds an immediate crash of thunder.
Wylliam smiles as he clean decaps the zombie cobold.
Round 3
He looks for the nearest enemy, seeing one in front of Scath.
Move: to square above the zombie facing Scath.
Attack: said zombie.
Realizing her bolt made no real damage to the creature, she again to shot, but this time aiming for the head to see if they can be killed.
"This freaks don't even feel pain!"
! !
Then she recharges the crossbow.
"They're already dead! Stabbing and clubbing don't work, you have to cut them to pieces! Valeria shouts, stepping forward through the corpse she'd cut down to stand next to the bartender who was doing poorly with punching them to redeath.
She twirls her blade and swing it down on the head of the next foe, now pre-punched.
The feline hisses and growls and turns into a small tornado of claws and furr, slashing and biting at the undead creature in front of him.
"Alexis, your crossbow isn't going to do much good against these guys. If you've got a dagger or a sword, use it instead."
Trusk moves to engage one of the zombies near Luther, heaving his sword in an unwieldy arc that causes him to miss.
"Out of practice..." Trusk grumbles to himself.
Frowning, Luther focusses inwards and applies two more fists to the creature Trusk just missed.
"My apologies, I'd never thought my lack of fixation on oversized blades would come back to bite me."
"Don't mock the sword. Not everything can be bludgeoned into submission."
Haha, two legs always bring fist to claw fight. The lynx amuses himself while spitting the vile taste of undead out of his mouth.
Initiative Order: Valeria ⇒ Enemy ⇒ Trusk ⇒ Luther ⇒ Wylliam ⇒ Scath ⇒ Alexis
I'll send Valeria a PM to see if she's still playing, if not, I'll see if we can poach someone and retcon.
Trusk swings his greatsword in a downward arc, attempting to split the zombie kobold in front of him in half.
Valeria grits her teeth and recovers from her downwards swing, turning it into an overhand swipe across the foul beast's torso.
Valeria takes out another kobold, her sword slashing it open across the stomach, and the foul insides pour out, insects and larva still feasting on the undead flesh. The rotting body staggers and collapses, unable to hold itself together with the flesh of it's stomach gone.
The two remaining kobolds both attack.
The kobold attacking Luther misses him completely, as the burly bartender ducks the spear with ease.
The kobold attacking Scath looks somewhat comical as the shaft slides out of it's hands, landing 5 feet behind Scath as the kobold loses it's grip on it's weapon.
Trusk get's a solid hit on the zombie in front of him, his blade chopping out a large section of rib cage. But it's not destroyed, only damaged.
Waiting on Luther, Wylliam, and Alexis.
Alexis steps to the side, shoots the kobold between Wullyem and Scath, and then recharges the weapon:
!
Wylliam sees an arrow flying towards the kobold. A brief look where it came from.
Focusing on the kobold again, he takes a swing.
Scath growls at the undead kobold and uses it's distraction from the combination of Wylliam's attack and losing it's spear to tear into it.
Once claw and one bite connect.
The weaponless kobold is looking very bad at this point.
Scath yelps as a crossbow bolt throws up dirt as it slams into the ground near his paw.
Will post the (presumably) last round of combat after Luther posts.
Luther frowns at the last zombie still persistently trying to hurt him and replies with a fist.
Luther's first punch hits, but it's like punching a bag of sand. He hears some bones inside it break, but it doesn't seem to faze the zombie kobold.
Initiative Order: Luther ⇒ Scath ⇒ Valeria ⇒ Wylliam ⇒ Enemy ⇒ Trusk ⇒ Alexis
Scath let's out another buzzing roar and leaps up on the things back and tears into it with his claws and teeth.
The undead Kobold manages to shake and stagger and throw the angry lynx off before he can get in more than a single good slash with one claw, but he rips off a chunk of flesh with his claws. The kobold is beginning to lose bits of itself now, tottering with rotting flesh falling from it's frame.
Luther's fists fail to find purchase this time.
Wylliam sees the Lynx go into a fit upon the kobold zombie.
But since the kobold still remains up after the pounding, he makes another swing.
"Erastil, guide my blade."
To confirm critical
And the zombie collapses into parts as Wylliam's sword obliterates it's remaining skeletal structure.