Upon seeing the creature only slightly recoiling from the bullet that had just barely skimmed it, the Paladin decided to teach it some manners for laughing off an enemy. That was spitting on the honor of her compatriot.
Shaking free of the creature that had attacked her, Freyja simply swung her off arm harshly at its head, definitely intent on striking it upside the head with her shield.
Shiro saw an opportunity to hasten the conclusion of this fight, and took it. Focusing power once more through his gloves, he fired a gout of flame at the two ghouls still standing.
The ghoul standing in the doorway falls to Keleni and Freyja's swift double teaming, its body crumpling to the floor and opening up the chance for Shiro to sent out his burst of flame.
The ghoul in front manages to just miss the worst of the fire, though the one behind it gets struck directly in the midsection. Although scorched and with the smell of burning added to the already intense odour of decay and fetid rot, they continue to move forward, another one taking the place up front and trying to go after Freyja. For 'intelligent' undead, they don't seem to be thinking too tactically.
"Hah, that'll teach ya!" Keleni smirks at the ghoul getting knocked out by Freyja's shield. Her grin falters a little as the smell of burning rotted flesh hits her nose, though. "Yeesh! that stinks!"
Keleni then takes aim at the ghoul that looks slightly more burnt to a crisp.
"Well, I never did like the smell of burning flesh!" she quipped loudly, before taking a hard slash at her enemy, making sure to aim right for its throat. "But you get used to it in this line of work!"
The mortician cowers in fear behind the door, shaking in terror as he remains only just barely hidden behind it. He doesn't react until you ease up after the final ghoul drops. Naturally, that's also when Stella runs into the room, having heard the commotion and not been following after you, only to find that you've already cut the creatures down and the ghoul corpses now litter the floor.
"Not bad," she says, in a way that implies you'll not be getting much more vocal approval out of her. "Hopefully you know what we're dealing with now?" She looks past you, to the cowering medical examiner, and a smile cracks across her lips. "Might want to speed up the corpse burning process."
A few seconds after the fight ends, Mirabelle is able to move once more, freed from her paralysis and fear, fully aware of what's happened while she was frozen.
Mirabelle let out a sigh of relief once she could move again. [b]"Dear gods, that was awful...Thank you all for the assistance." She tucked her weapons away with a sigh. [b]"So, ma'am, where to next? Back to the inn for a little rest or on to the next job?"
"Woohoo! Now that was exciting!" Keleni hollers, before calming down a little bit and putting her gun away.
She then remembers that Mirabelle was badly hit. "Hey Mira, you alright? You need someone to patch you up?" Keleni pauses. "Well, I mean, I can't, but I'm sure someone here knows how. "
Stella regards Mirabelle with surprise. "Oh no, we're dealing with... what, ghouls? We need to look into this. Someone is leaving bodies infected with ghoul fever around the city and hoping they won't be seen until it's too late, that's called an emergency."
"Fortunately for you, you won't have to go many places," the mortician says, turning to look at the corpses, not quite squeamish, but fearful. He's used to working with dead bodies, not undead bodies, and even though you've taken out the 'un', he's visibly concerned. "They were all working on the renovation project to repair last year's fire."
Stella regards Mirabelle with surprise. "Oh no, we're dealing with... what, ghouls? We need to look into this. Someone is leaving bodies infected with ghoul fever around the city and hoping they won't be seen until it's too late, that's called an emergency."
"Fortunately for you, you won't have to go many places," the mortician says, turning to look at the corpses, not quite squeamish, but fearful. He's used to working with dead bodies, not undead bodies, and even though you've taken out the 'un', he's visibly concerned. "They were all working on the renovation project to repair last year's fire."
Shiro spends a moment or two jostling through his backpack before pulling out a wand. He then takes a closer look at it, and hurriedly swaps it for a second wand. "Let's get you patched up", he blurts at Mirabelle.
HP restored
EDIT: HP restored
EDIT 2: HP restored (20 total)
EDIT 3: HP restored
Khandi is, for her part, mostly quiet, absorbing information and trying to figure out, in her own mind at least, where they'd want to search for the next batch of moving corpses. Technically not CORPSES she was pretty sure, though undead none the less. An awful plague, self-replicating creatures, and apparently ones with INTENT, as opposed to the sort of slavering mess these things SHOULD cause with a body, if their chewed up friend was any indicator at least.
Mirabelle stretched when she felt her wounds ease. She flashed Shiro a bright smile. "Thank you. And that was some impressive spellwork. I, ah, admire your ability to make things combust." Then she smiled at Stella.
"Ready to go when you are, ma'am. Can't let a little thing like a sudden Ghoul attack keep us from getting work done, right?" Despite her bravado, she was still rather pale and there was a quaver in her voice. She folded her hands into her sleeves to hide the shakes. The ghoul had knocked her for a loop but the quest took priority. She could break down privately once they had returned to the inn.
"Yeah! let's roll!" Keleni starts moving towards the door, despite not knowing where the party is supposed to be going. She then processes exactly what has been said, and pauses for a second.
"Hang on, what's this about a fire? I'm not from around here. or anywhere really, but that's not the point right now. Just assume I know nothin' about this place, which is a mostly right assumption." Keleni tries, and fails, to stay on topic. It's almost like talking about herself is her favourite thing to do.
The Paladin, who had mostly remained silent after the fight, often doing so to silently pray for the souls of her enemies (in this case, the souls that were one in those ghouls), spoke up. "Well, I suppose that was our trial by fire," she remarked with a slight smile. "Good work, though. We were fast to react and protect each other. That proves we have the potential of a strong team." And with that, she just simply continued to follow her comrades.
The mortician leaves for a moment to call for help from some other mortuary works, returning with several much stronger people than he who can help haul the bodies toward the furnace room. He himself doesn't handle them and seems to keep a nervous and worried distance from the bodies as they're taken away to be burned, and even then, he doesn't look like he'll be able to sleep well for fear of their return.
"Do you think you can handle investigating?" Stella asks, looking around. "I have to get ready for my shift, and my captain cannot know I'm doing anything in my off-duty hours. Don't pretend to be a member of the city guard and don't leave a trail of living bodies, and you should be fine."
Mirabelle nodded. "Leave it to us, Ma'am!" She then turned to Keleni. "And I think I can fill you in a little. I did some exploring earlier. Caught some gossip." She leaned in closer to the halfling and her sleeve instinctively went in front of her mouth. She lowered her voice slightly though was still loud enough to be heard.
"Apparently there was a huge fire not too long ago in the Northeast part of the city. I am not sure the cause or of more details but I do know that the rebuilding is being paid for by the city and one of the churches. The Church of Abadar, I believe? I must admit that I have little experience with said Church."
She straightened back up then glanced around. "So then, I'm guessing that's the best area to start looking for clues or information."
Freyja arched a brow as the mortician was explaining what not to do. "We'll make sure that we don't mess this up," she said firmly, looking at Mirabelle. "Abadar, hm? Sadly, even I, a woman of the cloth, know very little about Abadar. But, as that is our only lead, we must play the hand that we have been dealt. Does anyone need to make a stop anywhere or something of the sort before we go?"
Khandi taps her lip a little bit, tugging on it with the pad of one of her fingers and she hums, visibly thinking before looking to Mirabelle and the others, "Hmm, don't suppose you know what burnt down in the fire. I'm...passingly aware of the church of Abadar."
"Alright! we got a lead! time to head off!" Keleni marches right out the door, ready to get a move on and get to the bottom of this mystery. One thing she doesn't have, however, is any knowledge of how to get around this city. Everyone still in the building can hear a loud "Okay, where the heck am I going?" from outside.
"I do, however, seem to recall a few things here and there," she replied, taking her time and thinking as hard as possible about what she knew for fact and what she had only heard as speculation. She knew very little about gods and deities whom were not active and largely influencing through the forces of war, inquisition, and the like.
"Thank you, Mir... er, Miss Enomoto. I do intend to branch out eventually, but for now, fire seems to be more than sufficient at addressing our needs."
Returning back the way you came through the crowd, you reach the small, burnt section of Absalom, where scorched earth has been chipped away and little bits of building have been blocked and 'livened' with fresher, less charred constructions and scaffolds. Nothing is complete yet, but the skeletal frames of buildings have begun to rise; wooden and metal support structures, brick walls reaching up to the mid-calf on a medium-sized humanoid, and floorboards have been laid down. Usually construction wouldn't be out of place in The Coins, where new shops are built or town down and restructured all the time, but the sheer size of this continuous workplace is far beyond the scope any of you have seen before, especially with the church of Abadar standing brilliantly at the end of it all, half of it still standing proudly in defiance of the flames. Workers come and go, pushing wheelbarrows and hauling tools and planks to and fro. It's a coordinated and well oiled machine running as they seek to build atop the city's scars so that people can finally finish healing.
"No need for formality, Shiro. You helped save my life." Mira flashed the man another bright grin before heading out once more into the bustling city.
She listened for gossip and chatter as they made their way toward the Northeast section. More marks in her mental map. "The Mortician mentioned that they were all working on restoration and rebuilding, right? So maybe if we find out where they were last seen, we can find the place...or places where they were attacked."
Mirabelle tapped the side of her chin with a finger as she glanced around, taking note of the various workers, then the large, imposing church. "We should also keep watch for any more bodies...I would prefer not to repeat our earlier encounter." She shuddered at the thought of more ghouls hidden in the rubble, waiting for the right moment to strike and bite and claw and-'Get a hold of yourself. There's work to be done.'
"Alright, scene of the crime first then? If we were to ask around for them... wait, do we even know their names?" Keleni scratched her head, truing to remember. "bah, I can't remember at all! I don't think we did. well, time for a plan B!" At this, Keleni rushes off.
Keleni walks on over to the tired worker, all the while looking around the entire place, wide-eyed and in wonder. She then greets them. "Hello! I couldn't help but ask, what happened around here? Sorry if I'm a bother, but I've never been to this town before, and well, it's not every day you see a town with a whole section burnt up. But hey, you're rebuilding it! Good on ya. " Keleni offers her hand to the worker.
A human man is sitting off to the side, an unfolded sandwich in his lap. He's sweaty and covered in dust, and over his shirt is the same loose, bright yellow vest the others have been wearing to stand out during night construction. He looks up, regarding the halfling suddenly upon him and asking questions, eyes wide and words a little faster than he's capable of really taking during his lunch break. "There was a fire," he says, a little confused by Keleni's approach and excitement, unsure what she could want or if she's a bright-eyed and overexcited passerby just casually striking up a conversation he's not entirely in the mood for during his chance to relax. "I don't know a lot about what happened, I just work here."