Trusk swings again at the kobold in front of him.
"Die, damnit!"
Valeria moves around the foul corpse and ventures one more swing at the last monster, the movement probably throwing her swing far off.
No, moving there doesn't provoke.
Valeria swings and misses, but Trusk uses her attack as a distraction and cleaves the kobold in half.
As the adrenaline surges begin to subside, everyone sees the corpses are rotting at an accelerated rate, flesh sloughing off, armor cracking and disintegrating, bones collapsing in on themselves. At the current rate, there will be nothing but powder left of the kobolds in 10 minutes.
With the abomination dead, Scath looks at Wylliam, raises his hackles, and hisses at him. You stole kill! He buzzes at the human angrily. Then he takes off at a 45 degree angle, keeping out of Wylliams reach and dashing into the forest on the northern side of the road.
Once he's broken Wylliam's line of sight, he slows to a stealthy speed and cuts west, toward the crash site. He will sneak through the woods, avoiding the humans by hunkering down in hidey holes and sniff around to see what he can find that the rain has not washed away.
Subsequent Rolls, if more than one set are needed.
Wylliam isn't a telepath, but he gets the idea from scath's reaction.
He merely shrugs, turns around and walks towards the rest of the group.
"This is very weird. Such rapid decay, that's not "natural" for any type of undead i've seen so far."
"I agree, this does look like magic. And I bet the purpose is to keep us away from this place. Let's take a better look at the cart."
She takes 20 for 25 perception on the cart/Caravan.
The storm starts picking up, rain falling harder with flash lightning providing bursts of light. The thunder is almost deafening and the sky as dark night, even though it was just an hour past noon when you headed out. Upon inspecting the caravan, you find some generic rations that would amount to 10 trail rations, lanterns, 3 pints of lantern oil, 5 sets of flint and tinder, 3 bottles of strong ale.
"Damn..." Luther whispers as he comes across the blood on the driver's seat.
"This got messy."
Scath growls suddenly from the bushes next to the wagon. He snaps off a limb, races out to Alexis, drops the limb next to her, growls at it, then races back to a puddle of water next to the wagon. He pats the water, growls, and then fades into the underbrush again.
Alongside of Luther, Wylliam inspects the caravan. As scath bolts from it to Alexis, a small flicker gets his attention. He picks up the partial pendant.
"Hey guys! I found something. "
He walks back for the others to get near him before showing the pendant.
"Any of you seen this before?"
As he points at the partial symbol.
Seeing that someone found what he was drawing attention to, Scath will follow the scent he found off into the woods before it fades with the rainfall.
Scath will follow it until he finds what left the trail, where the trail goes, or until he loses the trail. When he's done, he'll double back and look for the stupid nose blind two-legs and see what they got up to with him gone.
"They look like the symbol on the windows, although it's not complete, it seems." She moves after the cat, that showed her some blood spots on the leaves. "Yes Scath, this was no accident. Something attacked the caravan, it would seem."
She calls out to the group. "There are drops of blood here, and also a bootprint! Can anyone take a look to see if it's the same that was in the house?"
She waves a hand to the Lynx, "wait a little Scath"
Trusk nods along with Luther's assessment of the wreckage.
"I agree. And this just keeps getting stranger. I'm wondering if those zombies were what attacked this caravan or if it was something else and the zombies were left to prevent an investigation. We've had problems with the undead before, but they've been few and far between. Groups like this are fairly rare."
Trusk then looks over the bootprint, trying to see if it matches the one on the floor of the house.
As Alexis calls out to the cat, he inquires, "Scath? Who's Scath?"
Alexis looks confused, and she replies as if it was fairly obvious:
"Scath is the Lynx, who else?"
Those of you who take a closer look at the pendant, can tell upon your closer inspection, it was broken in half. The other half is missing.
Scath will slow down even more, taking extra time to sneak. He'll move slowly, creeping along. He doesn't want to take a chance on being spotted. If anything spots him, he'll race away at top speed. Not toward town, but parallel to it. If he can find the source of the rot without being noticed, he'll sneak back just as slowly.
"So he's your pet then, Alexis? Since when have you had such a large cat?"
After examining the print for a while, Trusk stands back up and makes an announcement.
"I'm pretty sure this boot print is the same as the one in the house. It's hard to be completely sure because it's been washed out, but it's similar enough to warrant further investigation."
Just in case, Scath will stop and very quietly scar a couple of trees.
BAD
ROT
-->
With the arrow pointing in the direction of the scent trail he's following. About 2 feet off the ground.
Wylliam looks amused at Trusk's surprised face.
" Scath here was skulking around when our search started, so you "could" say we had his company."
Under a cough he mutters, "It is sentient too.."., in a tone Alexis and Valeria are most likely to hear that moment.
"I have not. It is not my cat, just a friend I met a few minutes ago. You do remember I make friends easily, don't you? I guess we can follow the tracks, Scath is probably doing that right now."
She looks for the Lynx in the distance and follows it.
Trusk glares at Wylliam as he catches what seems to be words buried under a false cough.
"Got something in your throat, Wyl? I didn't quite catch that last part."
Wylliam puts up his normal neutral face. Looking at Trusk as if nothing is wrong:
"Just said 'convenient' too.
Think about it, a wild cat is a natural survivor with sharp claws. Plus it's good at finding tracks if it hunts something. Wouldn't you like an animal with such perks as a companion?"
But why such a concentration of kobolds in this spot?
If Trusk looks away after anything said, Wylliam looks at Alexis and Valeria with a faint hinting smile.
This is a special cat. I wonder what we'll see next.
"Logic dictates that they were up to no good," Luther says more interested in what lay ahead of them than why there were so many dead things about.
Alexis: Between the disappearing blood still staining the foliage and Scath's markers, you are able to follow Scath. You can hear noises in the trees between the roaring of thunder and the rain hitting the leaves.
The blood on the leaves is quickly being washed away behind Alexis. If anyone else is plans to follow Alexis and Scath, the sooner they follow the clearer the trail. If you wait too long before following, the blood will be fully washed away.
Scath (not having been seen) will sneak back toward the group. If they went back to town, he'll catch up, if somewhere else, he'll try to follow the scent. If he meets them he'll warn them off until he can tell Alexis what he saw in private.
"Well, what're we waiting for? Those two have gone off, with the fight just now they could possibly run into more of them."
Wylliam waits briefly for the others (going alone is a cliché suicide....) and keeps his sword at the ready. With Scath and Alexis gone, he looks for their footsteps.
When (if?) the group will move, he will try to spot more zombies and being quiet while moving.
"I am sorry that your bodies were twisted to such malign purposes. Rest now, spirits, and let your souls be unburdened by the wickedness you were forced into."
Valeria is kneeling over the corpses of the kobolds she has slain, barely noting the smell. Fighting undead constantly meant that you got used to that quickly. This was the other part of her job though. Enemy slain, she now had to devour their sins, absolve them.
Ignoring the others for now, she spends a few minutes praying to Pharasma and for the enemies, trying to move their souls onwards.
Luther follows Wylliam, trusting the young Ranger's tracking skills. As much as he would like to rush after Alexis and the Cat-thing, getting the party strung out would likely be the death of someone.
At realizing that Alexis has stormed off into the underbrush, Trusk quietly mutters to himself.
"Following a cat into the forest... That stupid woman is going to get herself lost and end up dead..."
After starting to following Luther and Wylliam, he hollers back at the newcomer.
"Hey, Red, you can pray for the dead later. Besides, they're kobolds. they were probably up to no good in life anyway. Don't see why you're wasting your breath on the likes of them. They're just going to burn in the pits of the Abyss."
"I serve as what you might call a sin eater, gramps. By devouring the sins of these poor souls, I purify them and deny them to the wicked gods who would otherwise claim them." Valeria explains, standing and wiping her sword off along a branch.
"Somebody has to spare a thought for them though."
Seemingly much calmer after her prayers, she sets off after the others, brushing her symbol of Pharasma lightly.
"I'd rather spare a thought for my worn out boots. At least they were worth something."
As Alexis was following Scath, the rustling sounds become louder until out of the brush appears another Kobald Zombie. It pauses upon seeing you, for just a moment. Wylliam and Luther were not far behind Alexis, arriving just a hair after the kobold made it's appearance. In that brief moment as you all stare at each other, Scath was making his way back to Alexis, just as two more stumbled out from behind their fellow.
Everyone => Enemy
Map: Link
Round 1
Alexis realizes that she is almost in the middle of nowhere, once Scath has disappeared from her sight. She heard noises and was already preparing to summon forth her magic when the zombies appeared, and thus she releases two magic missiles upon the kobold in the center:
Then she swiftly takes a few steps back, toward the direction from where she came. (SW,S)
Luther does not hesitate in putting himself between the zombies and Alexis.
Wylliam moves to the centre kobold that got hit by Alexis.
Scath see's that all his sneaking was for naught, and races into the fray, hopefully surprising the zombies who hadn't known he was there. He scuttles through the underbrush and attacks the zombie from the opposite side as Wylliam, having done this before and feeling confident the human isn't going to accidentally behead him.
Trusk moves to catch up with the rest of the group and engage these new enemies. Not being able to get quite into range, he instead readies himself in case one should come to him instead.
Luther did not hesitate, putting himself between Alexis and the Zombies. Taking a swing, his fist just barely missed landing a solid hit.
Wylliam followed Luther, moving to block the other zombies direct path to Alexis. He too, took a swing. The sword missed, slicing through air as the zombie shifted just out of the way.
Alexis, having prepared herself hearing noises in the forest, cast a spell at the kobold that had first appeared, the center one. Her spell struck true, the two missiles knocking hunks of flesh off the zombie.
Trusk, having been between the group and the caravan, quickly moved to catch up with the others, not wanted them to engage the enemies alone. Not being able to get quite into range, he instead readied himself in case one should come to him instead.
Scath see's that all his sneaking was for naught, and races into the fray, hopefully surprising the zombies who hadn't known he was there. He scuttles through the underbrush and attacks the zombie from the opposite side as Wylliam, having done this before and feeling confident the human isn't going to accidentally behead him. And Scath's actions see success! He lands a bite into the leg of the zombie.
The kobold zombies move to react, attacking those that had moved in front of them. The first Kobold attacks Wylliam, who is right in front of him. The second one does as well, having started moving in that course of action before Scath attacked from behind.
And while both try to poke him with their spears, the first one seems to still be off balance from Alexis's attack and the other pulled slightly back by the bite. Both miss hitting the air around Wylliam.
The third one tries to poke Luther with his spear, since Luther tried to take a swing at him.
But it seems this kobold was not fully prepared to fight, his sluggish movements stabbing at a place Luther had long since moved from when attacking.
Round 2
"You missed....."
Wylliam looks amused as a feline figure pinned the kobold zombie at the leg.
He focuses back at the kobold in front of him.
"You do it like this!"
Getting a feeling this would be a good swing, he shifts balance and takes a downwards swing with his sword.
Luther exhales slowly. Keeping his hands up and his feet light, he jabs twice at the kobold and suppresses his revulsion at the feeling of his fists hitting the rotting meat.
Trusk moves in to lend Luther a hand with his opponent.
"Want some help? Your fists didn't do so hot against that last group."
Scath growls and goes into his standard whirling blur of claws and teeth.
Stupid old man. He probably cares more about his boots than those children he didn't save.
Valeria's serene thoughts are ruined by the unhelpful half-orc's words, and a mere matter of seconds later, the sound of further combat.
The other members are ahead, but not for long. The inquisitor lifts her sword again, regretting the end of her goddess's power today, but still eager for the fight. She moves in, sneering at the appearance of yet more undead.
Now in position, she swings, perhaps over-eagerly at the monster to her right [3], the bartender having had a poor time with them just a minute prior.
If there is any one standing Alexis will unleash another barrage of force missiles at the standing creature: