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Bataleigha, not wanting to get in Fezzik's way, retrieves her fallen mace, hopeful that Deko and the half-ogre can make short work of the last zombies.
Pleased with himself that his training is proving effective against the zombies, Fezzik moves further down the hall and prepares to attack the zombies when they come out of the cell.
Deko rushes up and gives one of the zombies a solid blow in the midsection. Everyone can hear the bones snapping as its lower ribs crumble under the power of his strike, and black bile drips from its mouth, forced out by the pressure of the attack. Kyrie erupts in a flash of positive energy and scorches the same zombie as well.
Fezzik neatly bisects another zombie once it starts to leave the room, though he sweeps his blade back as the last one stumbles forward and somehow manages to miss it.
The final zombie takes a half-hearted swing at Deko.
...and lands a nasty swipe against him.
vs touch
cold damage
Seeing the last zombie still standing, Bat moves up and swings her recovered mace at its head. Her swing is pathetic and weak.
for
Somewhat surprised that the zombie is still standing after taking blasts from both spell casters, Fezzik tries to cut it down.
With one last heavy-handed stroke, Fezzik fells the final zombie.
You take a few moments to catch your breath, but nothing else seems to be coming... for now.
"I've only got one channel heal left," Bataleigha informs the others. "Perhaps this would be a good time to return to Hommlet and make our report to Byrne. Let's search this area quickly. Perhaps Kyrie or Enoby could cast detect magic and slowly scan as we depart to make sure we didn't miss any magical goodies?"
Bat begins to explore each zombie cell, looking for anything of interest.
The group's once-over of the corpses turns up nothing notable - just old, worn-out clothing.
Bat's careful search of the cells does turn up a loose stone in one wall.
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Kyrie collapses to her knees, gasping for breath, her body feeling more empty than it has in some time.
"Aye....aye," is all she manages to get out. She makes a waving motion at Zinnath, suggesting that he might take over detecting duties as she sits, her considerable chest heaving deeply and taking in great swoops of air.
All: "Rest yourself Kyrie, I will do this."
Zinnath casts detect magic and completes the scan.
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"Deko not take meat from dead guy," Deko said decisively before making sure that his meat supply was still there. Nodding to himself, he grabbed his sack and moved over next to the magic lady. "No worry, eat Deko stew, make you all better! It good for body, make you big and strong, like Deko!" And to make sure his point was taken, he started flexing his muscles.
Enoby ceases her singing and heaves an uncharacteristic sigh of relief. Observing the sea of twice-dead corpses littering the area she makes mental note to equip herself with something more suited to dealing with such creatures in the future.
"I agree with our priest. Some of us are bloodied, and our magical resources dwindle. Discretion seems the prudent path."
All: "We dragons never tire, and we can fight all day long, but you bipeds grow weak over time. I understand. We can stop for your sake."
You make your way cautiously back up the stairs and through the pantry. There's a tense moment when Fezzik gets stuck briefly in the narrow stair archway, but Deko is able to pull him out after a bit of struggling. You spend a few hours hiking back through the underbrush to Hommlet and actually make it back just before dinner.
With Zinnath's insistence, the guards allow you to speak with Burne. The rather pompous magician listens to you reports and says, "I shall endeavor to be brief, as the hour of dinner approaches with haste. While wild animals are of little concern, the signs of habitation - and the sense of whoever was there to flee when the opportunity presented itself - do concern me greatly. The presence of undead likewise causes me to wonder whence they came; my understanding of the history of this place is that it was destroyed in the prelude to the Battle of Emridy Meadows, and thus there should not have been anyone left in its cells in the dungeons. Someone else must have come later, and either spontaneously rose as zombies, or were animated by an evil force."
"You seem to have met with some success thus far and I have argued with the town council that for you to complete your explorations you must be properly backed by the village's resources. There has been some grumbling, but because my deep pockets have already funded construction of this new keep, they cannot complain overmuch - the taxes in the village coffers are all coin from my own project! I have thus imposed upon the council of elders to release to you additional resources to aid in your quest."
Burne snaps and an unseen servant drags a small chest to you. "Please leave the chest. You may keep the contents."
The chest contains 3,000 gold pieces, six vials of alchemist's fire, six vials of antitoxin, two potions of cure light wounds (caster level 1), and two scrolls of magic missile (caster level 1).
"Use these funds to improve your gear as necessary, or perhaps to hire spear-carriers should the need arise. Now if you will excuse me, I have the matter of a crispy duck that needs to be eaten. I presume you will retire to the Inn of the Welcome Wench. Remember, do not betray your successes and your adventures to anyone! The presence of so many agents within our fair village indicates that prying ears are everywhere. Keep your secret affairs secret! Good evening!"
With that the bombastic mage leaves you to decide how you will use the funds released by the council, and what you're going to do for your own dinner.
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Just nodding along as the others related their adventures, Deko was more concerned with the food still in his makeshift pack. Looking around, he was rebuffed by invisible shields from grabbing various containers around the room. Giving a sigh, he sat down heavily onto a chair right as an invisible something carried a chest into the room. "Ghost!" he cried, jumping back up before realizing that nobody else was hostile towards it. An embarrassed chuckle escaped his lips before sitting back down. "So, we good? We go beat up bad guy more?"
All: "I would take those scrolls, but really, I don't have a place to hold them. I sugg st Kyrie use them."
Zinnath needs to get his harness/bandolier rig ordered, and a Tiny MW Thieves Tools kit! Otherwise, he simply can't carry, and thus can't use, those items he is qualified to use.
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Kyrie actually grins slightly as Deko starts flexing in front of her. "Just don't offer to 'heer me naow und lizen to me latah' and we'll be good."
Kyrie has regained composure enough to make a decent verbal illustration of their deeds to the much-respected arch-mage, and preens with pride as he shows satisfaction with their work. Her eyes buldge at the display of a large amount of coin...but her head remains empty as to how she would employ such. Gold is but dross, and naught is power but power.
As the party leaves the august company, she draws them close. "We might want a cover story as to why we were out of town for all hours, and then return exhausted and bleeding. I have no tongue for deception, but methinks we could have something generic, like we were hunting. Um, we were hunting snipe. Very big, very dangerous. Must go out again tomorrow.
Huh?"
All: "What is snipe? Are they tasty?"
Once the group's back in Hommlet, Bataleigha uses up the last instance of her daily channel positive energy ability to hopefully heal any lingering wounds on herself and her battle-tried but weary comrades. She also tries to appraise the peridot she found in the dungeon.
All: "Are any of you ladies free to come and do some shopping with me? You see, despite my having been here for a while, I suspect the local merchants will be entirely too scared of me to deal with me in a mercantile fashion. Probably it would be better if I sat on one of your shoulders and oversaw the transactions? I need to procure a harness that I can use to carry things, with pockets, and like a bandolier sort of thing. I also think I would like to find tools that can be used to, ummm, well, open things, close things, disable things, but they need to be Zinnath sized, you see! Really nice ones would be preferable, but not mandatory."
As the group leaves Burne's, Enoby responds to Zinnath's query: "I doubt I would be particularly useful as your intermediary for any shopping errands unless we know exactly where we are going and what we will be purchasing there. I can use magic to hide the fact that I am Drow, but the spell will only last a handful of minutes."
Bataleigha can see where this is headed so, after rolling her eyes, she taps her shoulder, inviting Zinnath to alight there.
During their time shopping, Bat keeps an eye out for a masterwork heavy mace or morningstar.
All: "Just how long does shopping take? Don't you just fly in, say what you want, and pay them?"
[Mentally to Zinnath]: You'll likely need to be measured for your harness or bandolier; you might even need to provide a sketch of what exactly it is that you want. And you might not want to pay everything in advance, just in case the merchant is secretly a member of the cult.
Bat: "I am not a very good artist. Honestly, I believe that is the only thing I am not good at. Do you think you could handle it? I'll go along and be there to be measured."
[Mentally to Zinnath] I'm no artist either, Bataleigha confesses, but between the two of us I think we should be able to get our ideas across. If the craftsman seems to balk at all, tell him something along the lines of 'Byrne thought you'd be able to handle this request admirably and with little difficulty'; he seems fairly well-respected in town.
Bat: "Will it help if I bare my teeth at the shopkeep?"
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As they party split up to spend their recently earned gold, Deko made his way to the inn where, with a fluent vocabulary and proper sentence structure, he persuaded the innkeeper to allow him to use the kitchen to make his stew for the rest of the party. Happily stirring the pot, and giving some of the meat as thanks, Deko talked about the exciting hunting trip he went on with new friends.
Walking into the inn with not a care, Deko slammed his sack of meat onto the bar and proudly exclaimed, "Deko hunt meat, make stew for friends!" The innkeeper just nodded his head, hoping he wouldn't regret it.
Having been around the wizard before, Fezzik was used to objects floating around and didn't think anything about the floating chest. His eyes did widen when he saw it was full of gold and it was for them. "Get big sword now," he asked looking around for confirmation. He looked at his equipment, wondering what else he needed. "Who make potions?" he asked.
All: "I heartily approve of the idea of Fezzik getting an extremely large and scary sword!"
Fezzik excitedly dumps some of the gold into his sack and quickly heads to the blacksmith before dinner. He asks if he knows of anyone with a great sword made for someone his size.
The blacksmith raises his eyebrows. "Hold on," he says as walks into the back room. After a moment, he returns with a large object wrapped in a blanket. Setting it on his workbench, he starts to unwrap it. "Someone mentioned you were interested in getting a great sword once you could pay for one. A few weeks ago, a traveler passing through town was trying to raise some money to fix his cart. He tried to sell it to the inn to put over their mantle. They sent him to me and I bought it." With that, he uncovers the sword.
A big smile comes across Fezzik's face as he drops the sack of gold on the workbench and picks up the sword. He is about to swing it when he realizes the cramped area and steps outside. After a few large, sweeping arcs, he nods his head. "Me take," he says, never taking his eyes off of the sword.
The blacksmith comes out with Fezzik's sack and what gold remains. "Let me know if there is anything else you want," he says with a smile as he hands him the sack.
Zinnath goes to find a leatherworker who can make a custom harness for him. Since Bat and Enoby are heading to the jeweler, Fezzik is looking for a specialty sword, and Deko is cooking, that leaves Kyrie to go with the tiny dragon.
The local leatherworker is a fellow named Jakk who is only happy to have some new business. His humble shop is festooned with leather gear, mostly in the form of harnesses and belts, which he handcrafts and stitches in a small covered barn-like structure attached to his home, where he keeps his wares on display. As you start making inquiries, a heavyset man with lidded eyes and a slouch comes out from the house.
"Hungry," says the heavyset man.
Jakk turns from where he's hanging belts from a pole and says, "We'll have lunch soon, Bing."
"Hungry," the man repeats.
"Go inside with your sister, Bing. She'll give you something to eat so you can wait for lunch with the rest of us."
The quiet, slouched man shuffles back into the humble house, and three youngsters rush out - the oldest is a gangly boy, probably not quite a teenager yet. He exits with the caution of being the oldest, while the middle child comes out running and laughing and runs in circles around Kyrie, and the youngest hangs back at the door, sucking on her knuckle, then points at Zinnath and says, "Dwagon."
Jakk gives a harried smile and says, "Please forgive the ruckus. It's... uh... anyway, you're looking for some special work? I can certainly do that. What did you have in mind, exactly?"
A woman then emerges from the home, collects the running children, and shoos them back over by the door, where they wait, shifting from foot to foot, and pointing and ooh-ing at Kyrie and Zinnath.